mine too.. tempature +10.5 degrees here..i was going to do a service on the van today, but seeing that it was such a mild day and that the bees on the roof of the shed had exploded out of the nuc at about 11 o'clock. i decided i would go to the main apiary to see what the causualties were after the cold weather, that they had went through. it had got down to an average of-11 over the last week.most were active and i had a quick walk around to see what hives had no movement at the entrances and could only see one with no activity. I lifted the crown board to meet a few bees sticking their head out over the frames. within an hour most of the hives had come out of their winter cluster and were pouring out of the entrences of their hives.small nuc's were a littel bit slower to get going but they soon came to life. I decided to start into pruning a few apple trees in the middle of the apairy was amazed at the the amount of bees in the air and every now and then an extra big one would pass by as they were clearing out their causualties. My clothes were soon coverd with small yellow spots from the bees out on the cleaning flights and i had to give it up a a bad job as the were constantly landing on me and a couple stared to crawl down my neck and over my face and hair and it was'ent goint to be long before i got stung on the back of the neck by crushing one. most were up in the bag of fodant, and a good few had empetied their fondant and were due another bag..All are were active and the only one that i have lost so far is a nuc on the roof of the shed in the back garden . It was a nuc that the queen was starting to become a drone layer late sept and they had a couple of supersedure queen cells in the centre of the brood nest in an attempt to replace her.
spring is nearly here!!! (I wish!)
