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.