Unusual for October 18, we had 37 degree weather last night. This morning there were dead bees clinging to the landing of both Bermuda and of Mellona. Dead bees look like living ones, but these had no life in them. I wondered if they had come home too late or if they were ready to die and were pushed out of the hive, but not all the way to the ground.
They have the appearance of perhaps trying to cluster together but there certainly weren't enough of them to manage the cold.
There were also dead bees on Mellona's landing area. These looked more like they had been pushed out. Maybe when it's cold the mortician bees simply drag the bees to the front of the hive and don't fly out with them.
I'm a first-year backyard beekeeper and noticed the same on the landing of my hive the last few cold mornings (in piedmont NC). Several dead bees, one clinging to the side, but the others on their side on the landing itself. I've seen some dead ones carried off on a summer morning. When I checked again about noon the landing was clear. Maybe the other bees carried them off when it warmed up.
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