The bees have continued to take the fondant down but still little movement outside the hive, it is now the 23rd of the month and finally the bees are flying with the weather warming up, one way to know if all is well in the hive without opening the hive is to watch the bees returning from flight to see if they are bringing pollen in, if they are this is a good indication the queen is starting to lay as the new brood need pollen to form and grow, as can be seen by the photographs below the bees are bringing in several colours of pollen which indicates they are visiting a variety of flowers for the pollen.
In the Hive – January
This year I treated the colony with Oxalic Acid on Christmas Eve also giving the bees their Christmas present a block of fondant, through the cold month very few bees emerged from the hive with the weather being so cold, bees don’t normally fly below 10c cooler than this and they have problems keeping up their core temperature making it difficult for them create enough energy to fly, if they do by chance drop to the ground they will perish because of this. this has not stopped them from rising in the hive to take the fondant down, the blocks you see in the photo are the 3rd lot this month.