Checked the 2 hives and 2 nucs I have at my house today, both hives are alive and one nuc. I added a super of honey from the dead nuc to the live one. The 2 hives weren't in the top box yet. I will keep a close eye on them the next six weeks, don't want them to starve. Especially since I have honey I can put on them. My first try at wintering a nuc, so I'm kind of excited one is still alive. They were both small swarms from last spring that never did build up well. Will be doing mite control soon. Anyway, that's the latest from my part of Idaho.
That is exciting because that is $100 to $150 per hive you will save with not having to buy nucs this spring.
@ Tec: "Testing anything in the extreme really tells you quite a lot." This has been my modus operandi for the past 50 years. Drilling gas wells is a dangerous business, and I test everything well above where we expect the problem. I test mathematical models to the extreme. One does learn a lot from extreme testing, like where the break-down occurs.
We had below zero for longer than normal but not as far below as we usually get, if that makes sense. It was definitely colder longer, even though we didn't get much snow.
