Frances and the Bee

In my last post, we set our bees in their winter location and treated them.  There was a light dusting of snow and it was mid-November.  Now we are at that time in February when it's almost March and we can't remember how January went by so quickly. We have been hearing a lot of people say it's been a relatively mild winter so far. For the most part, that is true, but we did have subzero temperatures for three weeks straight. We have been occasionally pressing our ear to the hives to hear the hum inside, hoping the bees were making it through. This afternoon was beautiful. The sun was shining, the temperature was around 40 degrees F (4 degrees C), and it was the moment we could see, after all these months, that all three colonies have survived winter so far. Wonderful! Between this and all of the birds singing, my hope for spring came rushing back. Many bees left the hive today to relieve themselves and there were more dead bees outside the entrances. These are kind of awkw...