February 24, 2016 Still humming away

both hives appear strong, buzzing away.
a couple of dead bees at the front and a couple live ones moving slowly on the outer walls - I guess they've been banished.
See the bee crawling around?

 My small hive:

 My strong/big hive:

Check out the coyotes on the land!

Put more fondant on

I got the smoker going, donned my veil and went to the small hive while it was sunny, albeit only 32 degrees though. I peeled back the top cloth and bees were moving around slowly - there is still plenty of fondant but I placed some right in the middle where there was a bare spot.
covered it up quickly - didn't need the smoker or the veil, it turns out.

I thought I lost a hive

On Thursday, I listened at 6am and thought the small hive was silent though the big hive was buzzing away.
So I went out today, Saturday, Feb 13 and they are both buzzing.
It is supposed to warm up next week and I will put more fondant on the small hive to help them get through this.
I'm still hopeful.

Is this the last cold snap?

Saturday, February 6, 2016
both hives still buzzing...evidence of cleansing flights outside the hives (yellow spots) and a few dead bees lying in front of the hives.
if they make it through this next week.....

February 2, 2016 - Still buzzing

There is a blizzard storming and both hives are buzzing.
If I get them through February, we may be looking at winter survival.