Still Alive

We've had an extremely cold December this year, with record low temperatures. On the 15th we set new records of -19F and had an average daytime temp of -6F. For the past week it has warmed up somewhat and our 7-day average was +23F, which matches the average temp for the whole month. Today felt like summer again with highs reaching into the mid-50s with warm sunshine. This change brought the bees back out for some cleansing flights and some foraging.

We were relieved to see they were still alive after the cold weather and their dangerously low stores. Since they were almost out of food, I took the opportunity to feed them a bit of honey and let them have a pollen patty. They took to the honey, but didn't seem too interested in the pollen patty today. Anyway, it looked like both colonies were quite alive and active today, which is good news.