Dead-Outs: Understanding the Loss of Bee Colonies

Dead-outs: that dreaded event in a beekeeper’s world when an entire colony of bees dies in the hive. It was a heartbreaking day in mid-December when we found that one of our colonies had died out. Every few weeks throughout winter, a day rolls around that’s warm enough (50 degrees Fahrenheit) to check the hives. Typically, we add candy boards during these checks as a supplemental food supply. Two of the three colonies were thriving, but the third contained only dead bees.