They're working!

Today was the first day it was warm enough for my bees to come out of the hive. I saw them coming and going but the thing that impressed me most was the level of sugar water in my feeder. That bottle to the left of the pic is full of sugar water. It has remained full for three days. This evening it was all but empty. The bees drank a pint of sugar water in one afternoon. I did some research today and found out that when it is cold, the bees stay clustered together and won't use hive entrance feeders like the one I am using. That might explain why I was having to clear the entrance of dead bees each day. Argh. This evening when the activity calmed down a little bit, I went out to look at the hive and noticed all of the pollen around both upper and lower entrances. My bees are working! I am seriously stoked for this adventure! I picked up a drone bee and a worker bee that were on the ground and not doing well. After a few pics, I started wondering if they just needed some sugar to keep going. I sprayed them with a mist and left them on the lid of the BBQ to recover. When I went back to check, the worker was gone and the drone was dead. At least I was able to save the productive one! I have a bunch of pics I will share tomorrow.