Jan/Feb weather and consequences

[SWHives]

Hi All, just trying to understand what consequences the current weather had on bees and whether I should take any action.
So where I am (South Wales) my bees are out most of the days as soon as the sun shines on the hives or even sooner if it is warm enough. I have wooden hives, the temperature is anywhere between 3 to 12 degrees Celsius during the day and goes down to around 0 degrees C during the night (very rarely -2/3, -2 is forecast for tomorrow night). The bees are bringing in pollen during the 2-3 hours it's warm enough (seen white, light pink, light yellow and intense yellow pollen). As they are bringing in pollen there must be brood in the hive. Now, I assume the bees cluster up when temps decrease meaning they cover/heat less space. Wouldn't that cause the open brood to chill/die or even potentially occurrence of disease? Or does the queen lay less eggs and the bees would cluster around the brood, covering all and keeping the brood up to temperature? Can you share your thoughts please.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

As they are bringing in pollen there must be brood in the hive

Why? the reason they're bringing in pollen is because there is pollen available. There may well be brood in the hives (be surprised if there isn't at this time of the year) but bringing in pollen is not a definite sign that there is brood
As far as I'm concerned the weather here is not really different to any other years, it's doubtful there is going to be slabs of brood in there so it should be well within the cluster when it gets cold.
The danger of chilled brood really starts when we get a really warm spring (It's January here, so still in the depths of winter) over a period of a few weeks triggering serious brood expansion then a sudden cold snap as we had in that awful long drawn out cold spring about ten years or so ago.

 

[Finman]

Bees have developed in Africa and moved to North after Ice Age. Bees have many habits between Africa and Britain. The warmer the winter, the better bees survive over winter
But brooding and brooding temperature +35C consumes much sugar anf honey and be carefull, that the hive will have enough sugar up to next summer.

 

[SWHives]

Bees have developed in Africa and moved to North after Ice Age. Bees have many habits between Africa and Britain. The warmer the winter, the better bees survive over winter
But brooding and brooding temperature +35C consumes much sugar anf honey and be carefull, that the hive will have enough sigar up to next summer.

Thanks, there is fondant on top of the frames and they still have stores from last year.

 

[oliver90owner]

Thanks, there is fondant on top of the frames and they still have stores from last year.

Your biggest problem may be that there will be little space for the queen to lay - if they use up the fondant instead of the stores (in what should be brood frames).

 

[user 21786]

I've learned to just double brood box my hives ... never take anything from these ...so its all there's... I've never had a colony fail the winter on double broods it's a pain in the A@# during spring and summer but the splits u get are fantastic