>>Some fly off worthlessly, and yet others simply stay tight in 
cluster.  Why?

My bees were out collecting early pollen/nectar/water on nice days 
only a couple of days before the snows came on Friday.  After the 
snows, when the sun warmed up the hives, the bees were tempted to fly 
out to continue foraging [I assume].  Since the hives are out in the 
sun, the area in front of the hives must have felt warm and some bees 
were coming out to check out the conditions...

In the past someone mentioned that the bees fly up to the sun and 
that the sun's blinding reflection off of the snow causes them to fly 
into the snow.  I'd say about 1/3 of the bees on the ground were on 
their backs and some stronger ones on the snow were still trying 
to 'fly into the snow.'  

Waldemar

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