a snip and a > response..
Many of our club members are observing occasional hives that collect heaps
of dead bees under the entrance but the colonies are surviving.

>We use to have a thing we call 'spring turn over'. This typically happened in the spring just after a long cold snap and you would find large heaps of bees on the bottom board. If you gave the live bees in the hive enough time they would drag out the pile of dead bees to the front entry.  Basically these were bees of similar age that had run thru their fat stores and fell to the bottom board during a cold snap. I do on occasions see the same thing here in the fall of the year... and again same age bees right after a sharp cold snap. < and this suggest to me that although we get late summer and early fall pollen as a protein source it may be inadequate. 


Gene in Central Texas....  

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