Dead Bees - What do I do with them?

[wee_deec]

Hi,

What do I do with the dead bees that are lying outside the hive? Should I be removing them?

Thanks,
Derek

[Trog]

Are there a lot of them?

[Neils]

I don't bother personally but my apiary grounds don't lend themselves to sweeping up. I keep half an eye on the number to make sure there isnt a sudden appearence of thousands of new ones but otherwise I leave them.

[Adam]

I leave them as they are. Mowing/strimming tends to pick sum of them up or move them on.
I tend to find that the grass immediately in front of the entrance is darker as it's better fed!

[Jon]

Birds like them too and the wasps will work away at them later in the season.

[wee_deec]

No not loads, i suspect the usual amount - just wondered if I should be trying to sweep them up... Glad the birds etc make use of them though. Thanks for the info / advice

[Trog]

Hedgehogs patrol round the apiary here, as well as the hens and wild birds, but I still keep a look out for large numbers of dead bees and 'crawlers' beside and behind the hives. Won't be going near the hives today, though, with thunder forecast!

[madasafish]

We have sparrows resident in our eaves and they regularly patrol our hives. There are zero dead bees left outside by 8.30am when they have finished their morning cleaning up routine. The family looks very well fed!

[The Drone Ranger]

cut their wings off and scan them ?

[Jon]

DR. You are probably joking but I have done that to get a rough and ready idea of the makeup of a colony.
You have to take a representative sample - no cherry picking the black ones!
Problem is the percentage of drifters.
I have picked a couple of dozen frozen bees from the snow in winter to check wings.
Winter is the best time for morphometry. As cabin fever kicks in, the wing scanning holds a certain allure compared to staring at the wall and doing mental arithmetic re. how long the apple wine will last.
At the moment we are having endless fun staring at the rain coming down.
Beekeeping is such a laugh.

[The Drone Ranger]

There are plenty dead ones on the floor in winter :)

Remember Karma (not chameleon that was Boy George)

I'm talking spirituality here grasshopper

Fog heavy showers here yippee Summer at last

[chris]

Rain!!!!!!!!! The thought is like a distant dream of childhood. I've been sitting in the shade of a massive lime- one of the two I found that missed the late frost, listening to the bees and watching the track. It's on Monique's land, and she's been telling everyone that this year,as the other limes are dud, they can come and pick the flowers on hers to dry for their lime teas this winter. I say the bees come first (especially as there's a massive die out in the world:eek:). Back off through the sunshine now to sit shotgun.