Bee update; overall pretty good

Yesterday morning it was 25 degrees here, but it turned out to be a beautiful sunny day and the temp hit 60 in the afternoon. I was outside near the barn when I saw a honeybee flying around which surprised me, I've not seen one out in a while. So I decided it would be a good afternoon to suit up and check on the bees. When I arrived at the hives with my equipment both hives were buzzing with activity, a good sign. I lit the smoker, and proceeded to open the hives. Each hive had two deep bodies and one honey super on top. The honey supers had comb drawn out but were otherwise empty, so I removed the honey supers. The deep bodies looked good, there were some dead bees at the bottom of the hive, on the screened bottom board. I did not see any problems so I reassembled the hives. I installed entrance reducers on both hives and I brought a treat, some honey which I put in some shallow lids which I placed on the landing boards. I put some twigs in the lids to help the bees reach the honey however I checked again today and found that a few bees had gotten stuck in the honey. The goal for this first year is for both hives to successfully make it through the winter, so far so good. Next step would be to add a couple more hives in a different location, empty, hopefully to catch any swarms, or I could transfer a few frames if my hives are really strong. We'll see.

Snow Day

It snowed overnight here on the farm, just an inch or two, but everything is covered and looks beautiful. Temperature was 17 degrees F this morning. Mary has already been out making snow angels and started to build a snow man. Schools are closed here today. The chickens are afraid of the snow and don't want to leave their house.