Oh No!!

Holy Cats! When I checked on our bees recently I noticed there were some dead soldiers on the front porch of both hives. I had not seen this before. I was mildly shocked and feared something awful must be happening to the hives. Was it some sort of brood disease, invaders like ants or mice or varroa mites or a viral infection? I wanted to do something but there was nothing to be done. It was way to cold to open the hives and it was lightly raining. Dead honeybees were still there the next day and the same weather conditions prevailed. After several days the cold and wet weather broke and when I checked on the girls (honeybees are virtually all females), both hives looked fine. The dead soldiers were gone and there was substantial traffic in and out the front door. What was that all about? We don’t know yet but I’m sure our experienced fellow-beekeepers can and will offer theories the next opportunity we have to speak with them.