I wanted to check on the bees in the backyard hives since it's been a few weeks, to see if they needed any attention.

Back in December I gave them each a bag of sugar mush in case they needed it and I wasn't around.

I opened the white hive first, and the place was empty. There were a few frozen bees in the sugar mush bag, and I figured they strayed from the group to feed and froze.



I pulled the top deep, and looked at the bottom one, and saw lots of frozen bees scattered across the tops of the frames.

Hmm, this can't be good.



I pulled a few frames, and found where the cluster was, or what was left of the cluster.

In the fall this hive was really thriving with lots of brood, good young queen, plenty of stores, etc.,  but something must have happened to them because today the majority of their colony was expired on the screened bottom board, with only a a dozen or two bees remaining on the frames in a cluster.

I thought they might have run out of food, but there were several fully capped frames of honey right next to where they were clustering.



 


Seeing that there weren't hardly any bees head down into the cells tells me they didn't starve, they just plain didn't have enough bees to keep warm.

When I checked on the Pheonix hive, it had a small cluster of live bees on the top of the frames. So far they're hanging in there.



When I checked on the purple and white hive, my best performer the past two years, it also had a small cluster on top of the frames. So far so these guys are hanging in there too.



Their clusters are smaller than I'd like them to be, and we have plenty more harsh winter ahead.

As it is now, I have 2 remaining hives to finish over wintering.



Last year my backyard hives all made it through the winter, and I suppose I wasn't prepared to see one of them not make it this winter.

I pulled the deeps, cleaned them up and put them into storage to protect the wax and honey comb so they can be re-used in the spring.