Buzz word for March

Reading all the Twitter feeds it seems as the buzz word for March was colony collapse. So many people reporting that upon inspection all their bees had died.

 

Well the temperature here is still not getting above 4°c during the day and night time temperatures of -2°c so it seems a long way off before temperatures reach that magic 16°c where a full inspection can be carried out to look for problems.

 

I fed the bees some more candy last week and they don't seem to have touched it so I fear that unless we get a warm spell soon I will also lose my first colony. It will be such a shame as this swarm that moved in last May whilst I was on holiday had a queen that reared some really timid bees, they're a pleasure to handle and I often sat by the side of the hive last Autumn with a cup of tea watching them come and go.

 

Others have advised all sorts of things to try to keep them from dying off, but if they do not want to move from their small cluster they're still not going to feed, I might try spraying some sugar syrup on the cluster on Monday though if there is still signs of life.