Well, I finally got my bees! I think they had a rough trip. They were in the mail from Tuesday morning until Friday afternoon. Anyway, I poured them into the hive, and the next day, I noticed a number of dead bees on the bottom of the hive. There seem to be quite a few. It's been since Friday now, and there are more dead bees. Seems like maybe a couple hundred or so. Is this unusual for a new package? I'm hoping to hear that this is normal attrition. Something like, "The bees are getting older, and out of 12,000 or so in a package, it is normal to have a couple hundred dead ones lying about the bottom of the hive." We had good weather Saturday, and they were very active. Sunday was overcast, and they were less active. Today is cold as hell and very windy. As you might guess, they're huddled inside. I've had their feeder outside, but this evening I moved it into the hive so they wouldn't have to brave the wind and cold.

So presuming it's relatively normal, do the bees clean them out, or am I supposed to. I've looked in all my books and none of them seem to address this situation. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

-- Laura Jensen (lrjensen@nwlink.com), April 22, 2002

Answers

The average life span of a worker bee is 16 weeks, chances are that many have reached that age. As long as the queen is producing eggs and the workers are capping the cells you should have no problem.

-- Paul (treewizard@buffalo.com), April 22, 2002.

Where do you live & how cold is it ? Face the hive entrance towards the morning sun & place the hive in the direct sun if it is still cool there. These are tips an older beekeeper told me when i 1st started. Only go into the hive every 7 days, going into the brood chamber when it is below 61 degrees will cause chalk brood. The bees will build up in numbers faster in a smaller hive, use a follow board to partion off a 10 frame hive to keep them concentrated on a small amount of frames(only as many frames as they cover) & block off the entrance on frames not used. That helps them to stay warm & keeps mice & other robbers out. Keep the frames close together til drawn out, that forces bees to have more uniform cells & less burr comb. Put medication in now to prevent foul brood & mint oils to prevent mites. I agree that a good brood pattern usually means a healthy hive. They should clean out the dead bees & hopefully the workers have not gotten into any pesticides or herbicides. It is ok to have small amounts of propolius or wax on hive floor, bees use that to climb up on the frames. Enjoy the bees ! Larry in OK (search the archives for more tips & ideas, find an experienced keeper to work with)

-- Larry in OK (Nuts4bees@aol.com), April 23, 2002.

The bees will usually carry all the dead ones out of the hive. Many times there are dead bees in the package that you buy. The seller will usually pack a couple of hundred extra to make up for the dead ones. A good resource is www.beesource.com

-- Emil in TN (eprisco@usit.net), April 23, 2002.