Funny, I had just read this when my husband came in and motioned me to follow him outside. The hummingbird feeder is COVERED in bees and the water well is choked with drowned bees. He said he's noticed many flying around the yard and there's a few dead ones on the patio. Must be something with the cold nights followed by a very warm day. Weird for sure. We'll go out after dark and dump the bird feeder and hope it's just a passing thing.

This explains why they are flying around and dying: They've been pushed out of their hives to die. :(

Here is a link that might be useful: drone death

In areas that get above 57F in the daytime in winter bees do not hibernate [honeybees leave the hive and forage once the temp gets to 57F; solitary bees get to work at 55F]. In Phoenix, mild winters and no hibernation...cold ones and they hibernate a few weeks. There are only a few drones per hive so outwith the drones would not result in what you are seeing if you are not greatly exaggerating.

Hummingbird feeder = water and sugar. Either they lack a water or carbohydrate source (honey gone????) the latter seems unlikely at this time of year, or they are trying to get the sugar.

This has been going on for about 4 weeks now of just tons of bees on my hummy feeders and just generally being annoying. I know in the cold Midwest the yellowjackets exhibit the same behavior as these bees are showing. When it starts getting cold, they will attack anything sugary like pop cans. I called it carbo loading for the winter. This is just going on too long here and there are so many of them. I don't want to kill them but I want to be able to go outside without being swarmed.

There was another feeder, same type, same fresh water solution, just a few feet away, not a bee to be found. We tried to identify if they were mason bees from my mason bee set up but could not definitively say. Thanks for the input FN.

It should be obvious if they are solitary bees (grey) versus honeybees (yellow).