Is there anyone there?

Temperature: 9C
I have bees. Which is a surprise. The colony had a pretty rough time towards the end of 2008 - what with a varroa infestation hitting them and then losing all their brood to shook swarm. All that pretty much convinced me that I would have no bees this year; that they would have starved to death over the winter - even though I did leave them a few frames of stored honey.

I didn't have too close a look but when I removed the blocks from the openings in the crown board they swarmed up - not something they would do if they were on their last legs. I gave them some syrup and I'll check them again on Wednesday this week to top that up and get a good look at how many frames they are occupying. The weather is due to turn cold this week again so that syrup may well help them get a better start than they otherwise would. We'll see.