2014 nearing winter's end

2/20/14:  Had a warm spell the past two days that will change to cold soon.  I had a small amount of time to check in the hives quickly before dark.  It was 46 degrees F and cloudy, about 6pm, had rained earlier in the day.

Of the 5 hives alive on 12/22/13, 2 are still alive.

2013 Hives 1 and 4 had approximately soccer ball sized clusters near the top of the hives.  Hives 2, 3, and 5 had frozen.  I moved nearly full honey supers from hives 2 and 3 and placed them on hives 1 and 4 to give them more food for the coming cold spell.  Fingers crossed they will make it through.  Plan to order 3 packages.

Interesting that none of the surviving colonies were packages with either a known Italian or known Carniolan queen.  They were both from Alan Travers, one a nuc from a cutout that may have been survivor stock and one a swarm he captured.