When I first took up bee keeping I was told to close the hive up early winter and not to open till early spring. Also told that feeding bees could make them lazy. To my cost I found both statements aren’t true.

So with the weather being mild all winter which encourages the bees to fly when there are no flowers out for pollen or nectar I will be checking all the hives this weekend to check they have adequate food stores until the early spring flowers start to come out. This food will be in the form of sugar fondant, a solid block. The moisture in the atmosphere and hive will react with the outer layer of the fondant to make it soft (almost liquid) which makes it easy for the bees to process. With the temperatures below 10 -12 degrees this most be done as quick as possible to reduce as much heat loss as possible.

I will provide an update.