Hi:
 
As per the snow angels, a few bees on the ground is not uncommon.  Some
fly out and quick chill, especially on a sunny day when warmth and light
hit the entrance and the cluster warms up a bit.  We always find a
sprinkling of dead bees in front of wintered hives.  Remember, in the
summer, bees die every day and some of these end up in front of the
hives, so why be surprised when this happens in the winter?
 
Keep in mind that all bees eventually die (as does every other living
thing), colonies have lots of bees, so odds are that some will die every
day (spring, summer, fall, and winter).  A pound of bees is equivalent to
about 4500-5000 bees (depends on race, comb cell size, etc.).  Mid-summer
population sizes of 40-60K (K= 1000, but we all know that, I think) are
common, some colonies may exceed 100K of bees.  From these colonies, we
should get fall populations of 20-30K.  Assuming 50% of these bees die by
spring, (10-15K of bees) we can expect an average of 67 to 100 bees dead
bees per day over a 5 month "winter".  Many of these will fall to the
bottom of the hive, some are stuck in cells, and some may stagger out the
entrance.
 
My point is this, 2 dozen bees in front of a hive is insignificant to the
population.
 
Best wishes to all for the coming year.
 
Jerry Bromenshenk
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The University of Montana