Hubby was checking the bee feed and yelled for me to come and look. Oh no! The bees were dead. A good number at the bottom, but a lot of them were frozen in time, still in a clump and even on top of the frames. Very bizarre. We checked the brood box and saw a few bees there too, frozen. The bee feed was empty and we were hoping that we hadn't starved them. This was our newest hive and we left them all of their honey. But the honey stores were gone. I know that there is pollen out there though because my rosemary and daffodils are blooming. It is so sad and frustrating to lose a hive. We just left the hive all cock-eyed and decided we would deal with getting it later when it warmed up and the rest of the animals were fed and watered.
A few hours later, hubby again yelled for me. There were bees flying around the hive. What? The bees apparently had been temporarily frozen and once the temperature warmed, they woke up. Hubby dressed out and put it all back together for them.
So far, they are surviving. They are not going through very much feed, but then there aren't very many of them. It has been rainy since then, so we have not gone in to see if there is a surviving queen. Fingers crossed there is or at least one that they can make.
It made me rethink about putting our new hive coming in April in that area. I think we will stick to the sunny spot by the pond. And it also pushed me to get my bee garden going so that they will have more months of food available.
At least I learned something: bees and other insects, such as mosquitos, can freeze and thaw back to life if it is not over 24 hours. How very cryogenic of them.
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