I lost one of my two hives over the winter. The Langstroth still looks pretty good, but I'm hoping the weather breaks soon or I'll be feeding a lot of sugar water. I opened it this past weekend to install some hard candy and the bees are definitely hungry and ready to go. They're working hard to houseclean the hive, clearing out dead bees and piling them on the entrance ramp. I watched them struggling to pull the bees through the mouse guard and decided to make their job easier by removing it. I had it stapled on and I wasn't wearing any protective gear. Every time I pulled on the wire screen bees flew out at me and I'd hightail it through the snow toward the house. After the 4th or 5th time I successfully jerked it free and the bees came pouring out. While running I heard someone laughing and looked over to see my neighbor watching my high-stepping getaway through the snow.

I'm starting the yard work even though it's a struggle with still  a foot of snow to contend with. Before long it'll be time to mix up the organic pesticide. It's painful, but I have some major pruning of errant branches on my little apple tree. I've been doing some reading and learned that branches never grow taller with the trunk, which surprised me.