New research suggests bee die-offs often occur because bees apparently become so stressed-out when young bees start foraging at a time they aren't really cut out for the job.

This collapse of bee colonies has already become an international issue in the U.S. and Australia where death rates have gone up, says entomologist Andrew Barron from Macquarie University. Scientists say the die-offs are caused by environmental factors such as pesticides, pathogens and the lack of nutrition. All these factors make it harder for young bees to adjust.

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Young bees spend two to three weeks inside their hive cleaning and brood rearing before they are ready to fly out and forage for food. Barron claims foraging is the hardest and riskiest job for them as bees forage at a younger age to help with the colony's reserves.

This led to Barron and his team to set-up an experiment to see how younger bees adjust to foraging. The results would help researchers study the impact of this trend on colony resources.

Researchers tracked and tagged thousands of bees in three experimental hives and three controlled ones using a small radio tracking device. They then removed the older bees from the experimental hives so younger bees can search for food.

With the use of radio tracking, researchers were able to record each individual bee and the times they started foraging; how many trips they made; how long they were out there and how long they were gone from the colony.

Researchers observed that young foragers didn't do a complete job of foraging and died faster than the older ones. When bees start foraging at a young age, they live shorter and complete fewer successful trips. They also took longer to complete a foraging trip.

These young ones are worse at foraging since they're less experienced when it comes to navigation and their flight muscle aren't properly developed.

This study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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