was just out back,, feeding the wild turkeys,, when I noticed a hooney bee flying out of one of my hives. Its 30 degree outside!!! As soon as it gained some hieght,I lost it, but I didnt believe that bees flew when its under 50 degree??. So, as a litle experiment,, I took some "dead" bees from the front of the hive,, brought them in, out of the six I brought in,, 4 came alive, (sounds like Frankenstein), so now I have bees buzzing in the house. Anyone hear of this before?? I checked my books,,, this should not be happening, (according to them)

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), January 22, 2001

Answers

Depends where u are but bees will fly if the tempeture from the sun on the hive warms up to whatever (never did measure it)and they will do house cleaning too. Just an added note if u decide to feed before it warms up (cause they are low on honey) feed a verry heavy,almost a saturated sugar water solution now then when the flowers start to bloom use a weak sugar solution..makes them think there is a honey flow and the queen will start laying sooner and more bees mean more honey and a stronger hive. But dont get it to strong without splitting it or they will swarm on u. god Bless and have a Honey of a time.

-- Charles steen (xbeeman412@aol.com), January 22, 2001.

Im in Mich,, 3 feet of snow,,, 30 degrees is the highest its been in weeks, as for sun,, not much. I know that one flying didnt get far, before it froze midair and fell.

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), January 22, 2001.

I though it was closer to 40 before they do any cleansing flights... maybe they just really really had to go...

-- MikeinKS (mhonk@oz-online.net), January 22, 2001.

In early January I noticed some bees flying out of the hive (when it was also around freezing) and a few days later there were a lot of dead bees (about 100) in the snow. I became concerned at this point and two days later, when it got up above 40 degrees, I looked in the hive and (boo hoo)I found a mass of dead, frozen bees. Apparently they had starved to death and then froze. I found many bees head first in cells. There was honey in the top super but apparently the cluster couldn't get to it. I read that when a colony is close to starvation the workers will force the winter drones out (those drones that survived the fall expulsion.)

Stan, hopefully your bees are OK, but you may want to check their honey reserve and feed sugar if necessary to get them through to the spring. I'm ordering more bees this year. I just love to see them buzzing around! Good luck with your bees everyone!

-- Barb (rosemontfarm1@aol.com), January 25, 2001.