A sad day indeed

My bees have all died.  As regular readers know, I checked the bees and added fondant on 12/19/13 and I saw and heard bees inside the hive.  At that time, I did clean a lot of bees that had died from the bottom of the hive, but that's expected.

Today I wanted to see how they were doing with the fondant and to give them more, if needed.  But no sign of any live bee and no humming at all from inside.

I think that, with the major cold weather we've had this season, it's just too much for them.  I need to figure out how to even better protect them next year.  I know that my bee instructor fixed up an insulated covering using trash bags and stuffing them with some insulating material and I may try that instead of the roofing paper next year.  It seems it would protect them better.

This spring I have two different bee packages ordered to replace these...and my intent is to add a new hive this year to expand my operation.  I'm sad that I must start all over but this, I understand, is common here with our cold winters.

I have ordered one Italian package of bees and the other one is Russian bees.  I would think that the Russian bees might do better in the cold but I'll need to research that and that may determine what I order in future years.