The long-awaited warmup seems to be here. We're looking at 30s-50s for the next several days, so the bees should have multiple chances to fly in the next week. Dad and Alex are going around checking survival rates. Some yards are almost all alive, and several yards are pretty depressing. In another few days we should be able to calculate our survival rates and make more precise plans. It looks like we'll be keeping some packages this year. The big melt hasn't come yet, but it's probably going to be messy when it arrives. Some of the snow piles are ten feet high along the roads. It always amazes me how our gravel roads can transform into several inches of sloshy mud. Right now we have to pull or walk in the yards with syrup buckets, but soon we'll be able to drive in and pump syrup directly into the division board feeders. Hopefully the bees won't be too hungry this spring, but the pump makes life easier when there are lots of hungry hives. Here is the portable syrup system on the back of the flatbed: This is the tank and pump in a smaller F-150. Since it sits on a small pallet, it is easy to load with a forklift.