Spring medley

We're still in that 'frame-building' part of the season I referred to last week. A bit too cold to open the hives for long, but still very pleasant to be outside working in the sunshine.I have opened my hives, but as the afternoon cooled the foragers returned en masse and their compliant acceptance of my meddling segued to mild resentment.I did what I had to, and closed them up pronto.Other than one queen who appears to be on a 'go slow', with little brood in the box, all the hives are thriving. I'm going to give the slow queen the benefit of the doubt {{1}} and call it 100% overwinter survival.That's what happens when you leave them with a bit of space and there's a nectar flow.The popular press have picked up the 'devastating winter losses' story now, so it must be true. Perhaps I'm one of those freak outliers that confounds proper statistical analysis? It will be interesting to see what the BBKA or SBA winter survey results show … though without validation it's unlikely to be…