Purposeful

Bees have a lot of glands

Right on cue. The first day of spring, the first time I have observed pollen coming back to the hive - which doesn't mean it's the first time its happened, of course. The air temperature was around 6-7°; I mentioned to them that bees don't fly at that temperature, but they ignored me. This wasn't a lucky shot, either. They were purposefully heading out in numbers and returning with significant quantities

They collect pollen because it contains protein; they need very little pollen for their own maintenance, but the recently-emerged bees consume a lot, so that they can exude 'royal jelly'. When the colony is raising queens, this is fed to queen larvae in copious quantities, as its name implies. But the same secretion - from the hypopharyngeal gland in a worker bee's head - is fed in smaller quantities to all worker larvae for the first three days after hatching. Thereafter, larvae are fed with pollen and honey directly

The upshot: lots of pollen collection implies they have brood to feed, implies the queen is laying well and the colony building up. None of this is nailed on until we have a day warm enough to open them up and check, but the signs are encouraging

I renewed the sugar fondant on the top of the hive. I'm sure they are eating out of courtesy more than need, but nothing to lose by keeping it available. The spent container was full of bees, that I shook out on to the landing board. They scurried for the entrance, out of the cold - a rude contrast to being on top of the warm colony, snug under an insulating pillow. But some heroes positioned themselves head down, tails up, separated the last two segments of their abdomen and exuded pheremone from their Nasonov gland, fanning it backwards as a homing beacon to make sure everyone is safe indoors. Even this prompt, focussed behaviour is a good sign, I think

Prompt, focussed behaviour is required out in the real world. Now that we have all agreed we are united, what are we going to do?