It worked! The bees made it!

I got up early this morning, ran up to let the chickens out and checked the bees, no one was flying. The temperatures were forecast to be in the 60's. I went up and went up, still no flying, I tapped on the hives and to my wondering ears, I heard buzzing! Patiently I waited until about 11:00 am until I saw the first bee come out for a cleansing flight! I suited up, got some pollen patties ready to put in and went up to take a look!

The hive that we lost in December was loaded with honey so I pulled a few frames to put into the two surviving hives.

 I opened the first hive to see these beautiful girls! It appears putting the shavings in the feeders absorbed a lot of condensation. As I removed it and tipped it a lot of liquid came out. The condensation dripped onto the shavings, the candy board sugar too giving the bees something sweet to pick on.

When the feeder was removed it revealed a big beautiful cluster of sweet healthy girls! I did a quick inspection and found the queen who was unmarked because they had re-queened in late fall. I quickly caught and marked her. The second hive netted a bigger even larger batch of bees! We are looking good for honey bee keeping season!