Doing Mighty Fine

It has been a very cold winter so far this year.  But if you have in the colony, plenty of stores of honey or sugar syrup, have lots of young bees, good ventilation to get rid of the warm moist air, have a good location out of the strong North wind; they will do just fine.
This is a quick check in the bees today, January 28th, 2018, in the mid to upper 50's today, and lots of brood already.
I even let the bees gather up some pollen substitute today.  Better for them to get it and put it in the cells, than do pollen patties on top to feed the hive beetles.  It won't be long that the maples will be blooming and real pollen coming in.

As the days lengthen, it spurs the queen to start laying in the center of the cluster.  If you have quite of few bees, they can cover a larger area to keep that brood warm. And to think, when these eggs were laid on the brood pictured, we were in single digits some nights.
Several people on the facebook groups and some of my potential nuc customers are telling me, "my bees froze out, it was too cold."   No, they didn't freeze out, the odds are you did not do any mite management in the late summer or early fall. Or what mite management you did was too late or ineffective.
Below is my best breeder queen she will be starting her 3rd year this season. She had quite a few eggs in the cells along with a couple of frames of brood. She is in one of my Palmer double Nucs.

   Most of my colonies brought in a bunch of Golden Rod honey last fall, and if not up to weight, I fed them. Most are still real heavy now.  When it could get critical is in March when lots of brood is being raised, and nectar supplies are hit and miss due to weather or yearly cycle differences.
Anyway, very pleased with what I saw today with a quick check on 4 colonies.