Spring Report: The good, the bad and the ugly

We have had a tough winter this year in South Western Ontario. It seemed as though it would never end. I was able to check my hives I am rather disappointed in what I found.
It is that time of the year again where you hope that all of your fall preparations will have paid off and that your bees are in great condition, ready for the next season. I have started feeding 1:1 sugar syrup to the bees to renew some of their stores so that they do not starve out before there is a nectar flow.

Hive top feeder

Today I have also started feeding them pollen pattys to encourage laying by the queen. This will get them to start building up their numbers again in preparation for the honey flow.

Pollen pattys placed under hive top feeder.

 There has been several nice days in a row now, which has allowed the bees to get out of the hives and clean up the inside of their hives. Bellow is a picture of the activity in front of my smallest hive.

Small hive activity on a nice day

 The side hive is shown bellow. They seem to have a bigger population. They also seemed to be a bit cranky. I got stung already this season for snooping around without my veil and gloves on.

Busy hive entrance on a nice day

Mystery spring flower. Any suggestions?

This is my third season as a beekeeper and I had not lost a hive until now. My 'monster' hive; which was my primary source of my honey last year has died. At first I did not know the reason. But after cleaning it out the other weekend I realized what went wrong. I designed and installed an alternate hive top ventilation box on this hive and it went horribly wrong. Based on moisture that I found in the hive and in that box, it appears as though the box filled up with blown in snow and then when it got warmer, it dripped and soaked the bees in the hive. This is a terrible shame. They still had 6 full frames of untouched honey left! Thousands of dead bees. I am quite disappointed in my loss.
On the other spectrum, the hive beside is doing phenomenal. I have never seen such as strong hive in the spring time; especially after such a harsh winter! I will have to make my replacement queens from this hive.

Big hive with lots of activity

I will continue to feed and monitor my hives. I hope the warmish weather is here to stay a bit, because the bees really need it to get better.