Tucked away for winter… or are they?

I went to check in on the bees today, wondering how they’ve been doing in this early cold snap we’ve had.

Here’s what they looked like when we arrived…. pretty quiet.

bees-in-hive-over-winter

I’m not sure if it was me, or my barking companion Nanook the dog, but something made the bees come out to say ‘Hello’. Bad idea bees…

bees-coming-outside-in-winter

They could not handle the cold, so they seemed to be coming out, taking flight, and dying.

That was sad, so Nanook and I took off so as not to disrupt them any more.

I went back about 20 minutes later and there were no more bees coming out, so that seemed better.

If you know what they were up to, or what I did wrong, please let me know in the comments below. Certainly don’t want them coming out for no reason!