You want to check the food stores of that hive ASAP! I had a hive last
year ejecting drones in the spring, and it turned out that they had very
little food and the hive almost starved out. Cool weather or an unusually
bad honey flow or bees that just don't collect well contribute to this.
 
On Mon, 15 May 1995, Ron Harriger wrote:
 
> Fellow keepers of the bee,
>
>    I visited a bee yard the other day and from a distance I could see numerous
> bees on the ground.  As I got closer I could tell that most of them were dead
> and a few were moving about. The good thing about it is they all were drones.
> As I stood and watched for a while I witnessed other drones being dragged out
> of the hive and dropped to the ground.  This hive stand holds three hives and
> is eight inches of of the ground.  I know that this is normal behavior in the
> fall but find it odd this early in the season.  The other two hives were
> normal in that they did not have dead drones at their entrances.  I did have
> a skunk in a trap in front of this hive a couple of days ago. He of course
> left his calling card before going to skunk heaven.  I looked into the hive
> and all appeared normal with lots of stores left from winter. What goes here.
> Thanks for any ideas that may give me a clue as to what is going on.
>
>        Ron Harriger Cambridge Springs Pa.
>