Our threat of snow last night passed us over. Windy and a bit chilly today, but no really bad weather to delay spring too much. I have not been out to see the bees as I've been working consistently on finishing my dissertation--it's always possible to make time when necessary but Dad has kept on top of checking the bees and picking up the dead ones. The live ones evidently have not required a lot of syrup. It has helped me keep focused on getting this phd finished. The prospect of a strong splitting season looks encouraging. Here we have some of the good colonies--a number of them have a few frames of brood in progress. Sometimes the brood-rearing doesn't really get going until late April, so we hope to use a lot of queens in starting new colonies this year. The hive below has barely survived the last three winters, but this year the population looks quite strong--hopefully that means most of the other colonies will follow suit in gaining strength as the coming weeks unfold. The Lonely Hive, Survivor of many winters: Strong overwintered colonies: