Chilly days - is this normal?

[ohiodreamer]

This week has been chilly, 40's and 50's daytime temps after last week being in the 60's and 70's.  Bees are not coming out - haven't seen them all week.  I knocked on the hive today, no one came out.  My hearing isn't good, so I haven't stuck my ear down to see if I can hear a hum.  I have seen 3 dead bees "kicked out" the last 2 days.  In the last 96 hours they have taken in about 3/4 of a cup of sugar water....so they aren't eating what we are providing, at least not fast.  This is all new to us, put the 3# package in 10 or 11 days ago....so it's a small group in there. 

[Deleted]

They are cold. My bees don't normally fly unless it is a warm 55. Your sugar syrup is likely cold as well and that will slow down their intake. Hopefully they are just building comb and not starving. Is your weather going to improve in the next day or two?

[ohiodreamer]

No, we have 5-7 more days of 40's to 50's with over nights lower. When the temps do come up (next Thursday) there will be rain. Anything we can do to "help" them stay warm?

[Deleted]

I am going to make some assumptions here so correct me if I am wrong. I am assuming the bees were put on frames of foundation or plastic. Not that it matters, but drawn comb would probably been a disadvantage here. Your bees will do a good job of keeping themselves warm.

If you want them to consume the syrup faster, give them smaller amounts of warm syrup a few times a day. They are conserving heat and making comb so the warm syrup.would be beneficial over syrup that got near freezing at night.

Good news is they won't have a lot of brood and are not in as much need for pollen and massive amounts of syrup yet.

I would wait until they start flying again to open the hive and check their progress. You don't want to chill any brood they have.

[ohiodreamer]

Thanks! I have more syrup sitting on the counter in the house. We'll swap it out for the "cold" jar. Bright and sunny here with low wind. Maybe they will come outside to play a bit later.

And yes, to your assumptions. There were put in new frames with just foundation. They are drawing out the comb. From the look inside last week they have already been collecting pollen and nectar from somewhere. There are some cells of brood, but not too many, yet. No reason to open them up and peek in, I don't think we (IE DH) are even planning to do that for a another week or so.

[Deleted]

ohiodreamer sounds great to me. I know most books recommend once a week for awhile which is why I suggested to hold off until it got warmer. They should be fine