In a message dated 5/2/00 4:35:43 PM, [log in to unmask] writes: << Dave Green asks about winter losses in New England. >> Lost one hive (of 7) that i discovered dwindling under the rule of laying workers. The queen was an artificially inseminated Carniolan. I am located in eastern Massachusetts. Judging from the hive contents, part of the cluster starved to death (lots of bees hunkered down in cells wth their butts sticking out). Found the queen's corpse in a small mass of dead bees. Plenty of honey—both leftover from last fall and newly gathered this spring. Beecrofter wrote: <<Due to the heat and drought the hives went into winter in smaller clusters. Much of my losses occurred right around 20 Jan when the temps went from 60 deg to 5 deg overnight. I found deadouts with 2 small clusters inside instead of one big one.>> This diagnosis is most likely for me too. I never suspected a drone-laying hive could result from winter starvation. I thought they all lived or died in the winter, and that's it. It's a great lesson in how all the books—beginner, advanced, and reference—I studied have oversimplified the possibilities of bee biology a bit. You can't count your winter losses by how many hives are collecting pollen. On the other hand, this is the first instance that I have heard of bees overwintering in multiple clusters. I don't mean to doubt you beecrofter, but has anybody else observed this behavior, and has anybody ever suggested a management technique to avert it? Isn't it equally pluasible that the bees somehow contracted their cluster into two separate pieces when the cold hit, perhaps orienting toward honey stores in different locales in the hive? Once separated, if one cluster used up the stores in its part of the hive, it would starve beyond the reach of the other cluster.