Hives after a 50 deg F. day

Took a few pictures after a 50 deg day, i expect the temps at the time of the pics was about 40 or so. All the hives are still "heavy" and living with little if any moisture. You will notice i have added Mega bee patties i made to stimulate brood rearing prior to the Maple and Elm Bloom, if you start this you have to continue to feed both sugar and mega bee or else the hive will starve.The Mega Bee patties i made consisted of the typical mega bee recipe plus honey bee healthy, canola oil, Latshaw's mineral and vit suppliment, and raw pollen. This mixture is something i wont be using going foward since make my own patties is time consuming etc. I do like the improved patties i make, but with the thought of 50-100 hives i dont have the time, so i will be buying the commerical Mega Bee Patties from Dadant instead this year, i do recommend the small beekeper if they want to make their own... The other thing you will notice is one hive has large droplets of water on TOP of the inner cover, this is of no concern as the bees are not exposed to it etc, but i wanted to mention it here so you know.

For some reason i cant "post" a comment, i have noticed this on other blogs as well... anyway, i wanted to reply to Sunman's question. First let me say i have stopped making my own patties, far too messy and time consuming with my ever expanding yard (21 now, 31 in a week...). So i went back to premade patties, Mann Lakes right now as they were the cheapest with free shipping. The bees seem to consume them just as fast...

The carnola oil was something Randy Oliver mentioned at the VA State Fall meeting that he adds to increase the essential aminno acids, cant remember which. What i also found was that it stopped my patties from turning rock hard and they stayed nice and moist. A huge plus when making your own, if nothing else i would do it for this reason! if i remember correctly i used about a 1/2 cup for about 15lbs of final patties... but its not exact just add or delete to find your consistancy just like you have to do with the pattie mix itself...

The Latshaw min&vit sub as something i bought to try. I am a person that doesnt mind spending a little if it does help, Joe and his father are well educated scientist so i trust them over others, but i dont know if it works. Can you really tell anything really works with bees??? most of the things i do have no evidence etc... Since this 5lb bag does a true Ton of patties i usally just take a little scoop and mix it in. I know its overkill, but i cant measure out grams etc to break that bag down into my small portions...

BTW i doubt the bees will use a pollen pattie right now, i placed some on a few hives on sunday, but thats only for insurence purposes incase we get another week of ran and cool weather... but they dont eat much of it during the spring here in VA, the real purpose for me is the first of july to keep brood rearing up and healthy. eventually by august they are eating a pound per hive per week up until about Nov....