[m463]

what got me is that over the past 10 or more years, I've continually seen dead bees on the ground.

and I think... what a small creature to *notice* on the ground. How many dead bees escape my notice? there must be a LOT.

[eutectic]

Bees live less than a year, so the number of dead bees can surely only be used as an indicator of changes on around that time-scale or shorter. Eventually fewer bees means fewer dead bees.

[lasc4r]

Do you think insecticides are altering where the bees die? Otherwise it sounds like you're describing a large population of former bees.