Dead-out

One of my hives died recently. 

I don't know exactly when, but I suspect it happened during our recent cold snap when nighttime temperatures dropped to 10 degrees. 

Bees survive the cold by clustering in a tight ball and flexing their wing muscles to generate warmth. This colony was undersized going in to December, so I didn't have a lot of hope for them.

Colonies died over winter. It's something all beekeepers must plan for. Small colonies can be lifeboated by placing them atop another colony separated by a double screenboard to keep the two colonies from mixing pheremones, which could cause one queen to try to kill the other.

I considered lifeboating this one, but its likely partner was fairly small itself and I worried about being able to tend them both if they needed additional resources.

The dead-out solved that problem. The unused resources from the dead hive, including multiple frames of capped honey, went to the White hive, inproving its chances of survival.