>>Looks worse than it is, unless the problem in Tracheal mite. I 
understand from some beekeepers, that Tracheal has made a comeback 
this winter.

Honestly, I've never checked for tracheal mites and assumed my bees 
were resistant.

>>Waldemar...how many bees are dropping in the snow?

The bees stood out in the snow but the numbers were not huge.  I keep 
3 hives at the house and there must have been some 3 dozen bees on 
the ground.  I would collect a handful, warm them up, and most would 
fly out of my hand - some back to the hives, some away from the 
hives, some into the snow.  The sight of bees in the snow looked 
worse than the sheer numbers.  [The colonies have 5-8 frames of bees 
at this time.]  Still, it seemed like a waste.  

My uncle from Poland suggested the bees tend to fly out in the late 
winter to collect water to dilute the stored honey in order to feed 
the increasing brood.  He always supplies water in division board 
feeders so they don't have to fly on marginal days.  He does seem to 
have a point - plus he's a consistanly successful beekeeper - since I 
don't see bees in the snow on marginal days from November until late 
February.  I think I'll supply my bees with water, too.

I also remember reading somewhere that a comparison of hives supplied 
with just water vs. hives supplied with thin sugar syrup, indicated 
that the water-supplied colonies developed at a faster rate in the 
spring.  Perhaps they lost fewer bees to the cold weather and snow?

I made a mental note to see how feral bees behave under the same 
conditions...  Since I remove feral colonies, I'll have to leave a 
couple colonies alone to make observations...

Waldemar

******************************************************
* Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at:          *
* http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm  *
******************************************************