There is a wealth of information available online regarding this common species, the Western Honey Bee. Below is a short clip taken following our fishing a honey bee from the wetland pond. This is likely a worker bee (female but not a queen) due to its large mouthparts which you can see it trying to clean following its little swim.
Unfortunately from time to time you do find a dead or dying bee. As worker Honey Bees reportedly only live for a few weeks this is perhaps no surprise and dead bees could simply be worn/old bees which died as it was simply their time.
Other times you do see the following, which we believe is a honey bee that died following use of its stinger. Note the abdomen has been ripped apart and is hollow. This is because when a honey bee stings it loses the whole apparatus including the barb, venom sack etc. This results in the bees death.
Wildlife Garden 