Bring Out Your Dead

It warmed up quite a bit today. The sun was shining bright and we got at least seven or eight degrees warmer than the low 40's they were predicting.

After all my chores were done and I had loaded up and hauled off the truckload of scrap I made yesterday I started checking my hives for signs of life.

The two hives I keep down the road a bit behind a Peach orchard showed no signs of life at all but I am not too worried about it. It was still late morning when I went by and I am not sure they had gotten much sunlight before I arrived so it's possible those two hives had not warmed up enough to come out and take flight. They may have been balled up inside. The wind was too strong for me to hear if they were buzzing in there too.

So the two orchard hives are as yet a question.

The other 11 hives near the garden and down in the back of the pasture were all buzzing and showing a lot of activity by the time I made it home.

Jamestown colony's lower entrance was almost totally choked with dead bees and all the live ones were coming out the upper entrance. I may need to put on my suit and clean that entrance out if they haven't done so themselves soon.

The hives maybe still alive but it's pretty obvious this round of cold cost em some resources and a lot of lost worker bees and the really lean period isn't even here yet. We have at least a month before the Ash and Elm trees may start blooming followed closely by the Redbud and Maples. Even after the girls start foraging again it will be at least a few weeks before they could turn any nectar into honey.

If the sun shines tomorrow and raises the temp a bit more than today I will open each top and see how or if the bees are hitting the dry sugar I placed on top of each hive.

So except for the two hives at the orchard all the others had good activity and showed live bees coming and going. Things are looking good.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!