Head First

[Kathyp]

a number of people who have lost hives have described finding the dead bees head first and stuck deep into the comb.  i found the same thing in my rescue hive, but not all of the bees were dead. 

is there an explanation for this behavior?  in my case, it was not a lack of food.  although the nights were cold the days have been warmer  there was food both in the hive and on it.

they do appear to have been queenless.  i'm sure that's why they didn't make it.  i had thought there was a queen and i must have been wrong or she was lost.

is this the behavior of a queenless  hive, a hive that is dying of old age, or is it symptomatic of something else that i should watch for in other hives?

[Robo]

Head first is starvation.  Just because there is still honey left, doesn't mean they could get to it.    A cold spell can prevent them from moving over or up to new stores,  sometimes they get off to the side and can't break cluster to move to another area with honey.  If they have brood, sometimes they won't leave it either.

[Kathyp]

so i had been told, but in this case, i don't think so.  there was honey on the frame they were on, next to them, and in several other frames.  there was also syrup on the hive.  while the nites were cold, the days have gotten into the high 50's and low 60's.  they were flying.  lack of access to food should not have been an issue this time.

what else would cause this behavior?

[Michael Bush]

The cluster rests with their head in cells.  It doesn't mean they starved necessarily although that is often the cause.  They may have just had too small a cluster with too cold a temperature.