The bees may be OK. I may have been seeing the change from summer bees to winter bees for the first time and panicked.
They aren’t taking the syrup I’ve been putting out very quickly. However, there were bees visible in Rosamund and syrup visible in the comb in Lucretia, today.
We’ll know the truth when Spring actually springs.
Let’s hope so. I was distraught when I read that you thought they’d had it. Do they kind of hibernate?
Not quite.
There are summer bees and winter bees. Summer bees work hard and live short lives, approximately 6 weeks. Winter bees live through the cold season, tending to the queen until the weather turns and it’s time for summer bees again. Winter bees tend to have more fat and protein in their bodies and are larger than summer bees. And there are fewer winter bees so they eat less of the stores.
So, it’s conceivable that this is merely winter die-off. But there are so few bees and it was so abrupt that it makes me twitchy. 
I hope you’re more right this time.
-? Me, too.
I am the Audience 
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