The Mystery of the Bees

[3113]

Ladies, Gents, and know-it-alls of all ages....

Seems my condo complex has a hive. We are investigating what to do about it, but there's a mystery to the bees (and yes, we're pretty sure they're bees. I tried to take a photo, but it just would not come out. They're very small bees, with the usual honey-yellow stripes on the lower half of their bodies. From photos, I'd say they're honeybees, workers. They have been pretty non-aggressive sorts, feeding off the garden flowers and not bothering anyone--no stings either--knock on wood as I'm slightly allergic).

Anyway. The hive is located close to my porch. Here's the mystery. Every morning we find dead bees on the porch. We spray nothing toxic out there, no cleaner or bug spray, and yet they're dropping, well, like flies.

I've no idea what is attracting them to come to my porch (there's no flowers potted out there), nor what is killing them once they come. The only thing that pops to mind is this: I have put out cinnamon around the threshold to keep out ants. Could that be what is attracting and killing them? Or has my porch become some strange "bee graveyard"?

 

[sr71plt]

Your porch has become some sort of strange bee graveyard.

 

[Weird Harold]

...Here's the mystery. Every morning we find dead bees on the porch.

I'm not sure there's a link to your problem because I haven't followed it very closely, but there is a widespread problem of bees "dropping like flies" -- to the point where food crops all over the world that depend on bees to pollinate them are being endangered.

You might be just seeing a local manifestation of the "great bee die off."

ETA: BBC Article from 2009

Wikipedia: "Colony Collapse Disorder'

 

[litfan10]

Two things here 3113

(1.) I am so biting my lip not to spin this into a plug for my summer story!!!

(2.) Has there been any recent varnishing going on at your place as the pollen mechanism does absorb stuff like this which poisons them. If their hive is close to something like this they could be resting in a poison field for themselves.

 

[3113]

Your porch has become some sort of strange bee graveyard.

Thank you, Stephen King.

You might be just seeing a local manifestation of the "great bee die off."

But as I understand it this is more a matter of bees leaving the hive. Not ended up dead on a porch...could be but I wonder if it's something more prosaic.

(1.) I am so biting my lip not to spin this into a plug for my summer story!!!

If there are bees in it, plug away!

(2.) Has there been any recent varnishing going on at your place

No, none. At least, none in my place. The porch is concrete. It's possible that my neighbor might be doing or have done something, though.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

It's coming to the end of the flowering year. The old bees naturally die off and the hive murders and disposes of the drones so they don't overtax the hive's resources during the winter. If the hive is reasonable healthy, any local bee-keeper will gladly take it off your hands, er . . . porch. Feral hives are in great demand, so I understand, because they seem immune to whatever is causing the sudden hive die off syndrome. Chek der yeller pages.

 

[TE999]

Has anyone in the neighborhood sprayed insect killer on their flowers and bushes lately? It could be poisoning the bees.

 

[3113]

It's coming to the end of the flowering year. The old bees naturally die off and the hive murders and disposes of the drones so they don't overtax the hive's resources during the winter.

So...there's a mass drone slaughter going on in the hive, but they're dragging out the bodies and leaving them on my porch so that....? What? The suspicion for these killings will fall on me?

Has anyone in the neighborhood sprayed insect killer on their flowers and bushes lately? It could be poisoning the bees.

I'm pretty darn sure that no one has done that to the immediate flowers in our garden (the nearest one to the hive there) as my downstairs neighbor who tends to said garden is very against poisoning anything. But it is always possible that someone to either side's been spraying away.

Once again, however, how does that land the dead bees on my porch?

Understand, if the hive was attached to the roof above my little terrace porch, I'd buy it. But the hive is actually in a nook under the roof tiles a few feet up and at least a couple of yards away. If dead bees were falling out of the hive, they'd fall on the garden right below. To die on my porch they have to fly out of the hive, land or hover outside my door and commit suicide.

 

[jomar]

Beethanasia is typically the result of sunspots, electrical fields or, or, ....something.

 

[jomar]

...
Once again, however, how does that land the dead bees on my porch?

...

What perfume are you wearing?

 

[3113]

What perfume are you wearing?

Eau de 3113. A lovely fragrance of bath soap and sunscreen, sometimes accented with a hint of freshly ground coffeebeans from writing at the local Starbucks.

 

[jomar]

Eau de 3113. A lovely fragrance of bath soap and sunscreen, sometimes accented with a hint of freshly ground coffeebeans from writing at the local Starbucks.

bzzzzzzzzz *thump*

 

[3113]

bzzzzzzzzz *thump*

 

[Weird Harold]

I'm pretty darn sure that no one has done that to the immediate flowers in our garden (the nearest one to the hive there) as my downstairs neighbor who tends to said garden is very against poisoning anything. But it is always possible that someone to either side's been spraying away.

Once again, however, how does that land the dead bees on my porch?

Bees can travel miles from the hive in search of nectar and some insecticides are purposely slow acting so the victims will carry it home. The bees are probably dropping dead on the way home from somewhere outside your immediate area.

 

[colddiesel]

Any chance of posting a picture of a late bee, ideally with a rule or something to show scale. I'm not totally convinced they are honey bees and some of the wild bees are particularly, well, not wild.

 

[3113]

Any chance of posting a picture of a late bee, ideally with a rule or something to show scale. I'm not totally convinced they are honey bees and some of the wild bees are particularly, well, not wild.

I will try again. My camera phone can't seem to get them in focus.

 

[3113]

Dead Bee: Exhibit A

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i190/thirteen1031/Bee2.jpg?t=1283047449

Hooray for Husband's new iPhone. Here we go!

 

[TE999]

There may not be enough flowers about to sustain the hive and the bees are starving. The color of your porch/patio floor may be attracting them which is why they're dying there.

 

[Katyusha]

So...there's a mass drone slaughter going on in the hive, but they're dragging out the bodies and leaving them on my porch so that....? What? The suspicion for these killings will fall on me?

Yes. They're framing you.

I don't know much about bees so I don't know what could be going on. The only thing I can think of is that they're unhealthy somehow, and your porch is on their path either out to or back from their feeding ground.

 

[colddiesel]

Looks a bit droney to me though I'm not completely certain. If so it's likely the poor old males getting booted out of home as cooler weather approaches.

If you are only talking a few dozen maybe up to 100 it's unlikely to be workers. If the workers start to die off you could be talking 1000's in no time at all.

 

[3113]

Looks a bit droney to me though I'm not completely certain. If so it's likely the poor old males getting booted out of home as cooler weather approaches.

Poor Drones....so my porch has become the Drone Graveyard?

 

[voluptuary_manque]

That's my guess.