The good news is that three of our four colonies survived the winter. The bad news is the colony that did not make it was our favorite. Although we tell the bees we love them all equally, Mercurys hive had the mellowest bees and was a great honey producer.
Ilana went out in late February to give the bees some fondant (in case their winter honey was low). She started with Mercurys hive (all dead) and then moved to the hive next to it, the Ponyo colony. Ponyo has the feistiest bees and they did NOT like having their lid removed. They went after Ilana to protect the hive, and since they had been inside all winter they also needed to poo. Ilana managed to get the fondant in the box and was not stung, although she was covered in bee poo. The picture is of the poo covered snow after the incident. Ilana gave up on the other hives after that, beyond peeking in to see that the bees were alive.
We checked all the hives yesterday and gave the rest of the bees fondant. Everything seems good.
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