So far, only one our hives has died out this winter. My son told me today that he did not see any bees flying out the other day when it was warm and so he looked in and saw that they had all perished. I pulled the hive apart today so that we could learn what there was to learn, and there were very few bees bunched up in various clusters on different frames. Some had their heads in cells with honey one cell away. I estimate no more than one hundred bees in the whole hive. This was a hive with low numbers going in to the winter, and I feared that this might happen.
This situation, however, has left me with several frames of drawn comb, most at least partially full of capped honey, uncapped honey and pollen. What do I do with it? Should I wait for a warm day and put them into the other hives or can I save them and put a package on them? Perhaps the honey and pollen would give them a head start. If I can give it to a package, how do I store the frames until April?