Winter Bees

Went over to help Bob with a hive that had blown over in the night. Lovely sunny winter morning thankfully and the bees were flying, warming themselves and even returning with some of their pollen sacks laden from the few winter flowering plants. When we first got to the hive, with suits on and smoker working, it was completely on it's side with the compartments spilled out over the floor but thankfully there were bees still about and all signs suggest that the queen is still inside. The brood chamber with an attached super, still had the queen excluder fixed in-place with propolis and we could see bees moving about on the frames and so we steadily rebuilt the hive on level footings and worked our way up adding the frames.The bees were soon busy around the landing board but weren't particularly angry, pleased to have their home re-assembled and the warmth back. Always a pleasure to help bob with the bees and to talk about beekeeping, there is so much to learn. The other hives in the apiary seemed fine, with bees arriving and leaving steadily,  and I'm looking forward to having my own hives this year and so I returned home laden with brood boxes and frames to clean up in preparation for the spring, ready to house new swarms.