[Crazyhorse]

Took the roof off my two hives yesterday afternoon to see how the fondant was going. In one, there were dead bees around the fondant on the top and no bees came out of the hole in the crown board to greet me. I looked down the hole and could see no bees on the frames below but quite a few lifeless on the wire mesh floor below. Removing the entrance block I could see lots of dead bees were on the mesh. With a heavy heart, I resolved to put on the suit and have a closer look at both hives in the morning. After a restless night of "Is it my fault? Should I have fed them more?" etc etc, I finally took off the crown board and to my great relief found a reasonable size cluster of surprised bees right to one side of the brood box. Excellent. As a reward I put on a super with a couple of frames of honey I still have from last year, cleared out the floor and put the lid on. The other hive was fine and no problem.

[Sudanpan]

I had the same sinking feeling at the beginning of the week. Took the top of the hives (2) to check the fondant and there was NO sign of life 
However we had    and very little wind yesterday so the hives were 'basking' in 10 degrees and there were bees all over the alighting board (having to queue up to get back in cos the entrance was very small!!) There were also bees flying from the other hive, both colonies bringing in lots of pollen and doing house keeping duties chucking out dead bees etc - 


Today we are back to biting winds and 3 degrees adn the girls have stayed out of sight again

[hughesy]

We've just discovered that 5 of our 6 colonies are dead. Plenty of stores along with the fondant we've given them but all the bees dead. Can only be the long cold period as they were all ok after christmas. The 6th hive has a smallish number of bees but there's brood and plenty for them to eat if they can survive.

[Sudanpan]

Very sorry to hear that    Hope the little colony hangs in there for you 

[Crazyhorse]

Hughesy, thats real bad news. I guess we have not had the sustained cold snap here in the southwest that you guys have had. Its got to warm up soon!!

[OhLaLa]

I feed going into the winter so they have enough stores to get them through.

At this time of year, if they need a top up, give them sugar syrup. Fondant is too difficult to work in this cold weather.
 
PS: Better not to open hives at all on cold days. Brrrrrrrr.

[hughesy]

Thanks for the sympathy folks. The missus is pretty cheesed off about it as the bees are her project really I just do the donkey work. We hadn't opened the hives for ages because it's been so cold but were beginning to suspect something bad had happened so had to have a look. All had plenty of honey still there and signs that they'd been at the fondant too but no live bees left. The surviving hive now has a feeder full of syrup as well. We're going to make sure that's kept topped up and just keep our fingers crossed. OhLaLa we'd been feeding syrup from august onwards last year as it was such a bad year for forage round here.

[OhLaLa]

If you haven't already - make sure a mouse guard is on that small colony and narrow the doorway to restricted access so they don't get robbed out.
 
Remove the empty hives and frames. They will make nice inviting lures in the summer for swarms, but right now you don't want any raiding going on.
 
When the weather is cold I put my National/Commercial hives inside WBC outers. They fit in there just fine and give them that bit of extra insulation without restricting ventilation.
 
Let us know how you get on.
 

[Plantoid]

We've just discovered that 5 of our 6 colonies are dead. Plenty of stores along with the fondant we've given them but all the bees dead. Can only be the long cold period as they were all ok after christmas. The 6th hive has a smallish number of bees but there's brood and plenty for them to eat if they can survive.

Usually bees survive cold if there is plenty of food ,  down to minus 10  oC for a few weeks at a time .  I'd do a careful check of the remaining hive for varroa , nosema and foul brood as they are a common reason for the queen to die so that no new bes are produced .. the hive then dies quite quickly