Sunday 7th March
This winter seems to have dragged on forever! The cold weather started very early (last October) and even now there hasn't yet been a single warm day!
As you can see, we've started clearing some of the trees away, the others should be gone in a few more weeks - it feels so much lighter and brighter around here already! I removed the chicken wire and hive straps today as I don't believe there'll be any more risk of woodpecker damage now.
Even my crocuses are hardly flowering at all - it still feels like we're in mid-winter here!
Even though it's a bright sunny day (at last!) it's still extremely cold. I removed the lids to give some fondant paste to the bees. It's a bit like cake icing, and won't freeze overnight like sugar syrup would. I can't open up to see if they need feeding at all but if they don't, they just won't take it.
I watched the entrances closely for signs of life but hardly anything at all, just the occasional bee flying in and out.
Looking at the varroa floors, there has been some activity, but not a great deal. It shows that they are at least active in there but we'll have to wait quite some time longer until we can consider opening up though.
Hardly anything looks different but there are finally a number of flying bees.
It seems strange that there are quite a few visible on the further hive (Charlie) but hardly any on the nearer one (Bea).
