I think they got caught

[Papakeith]

I checked on my hives yesterday. Out of 8 hives that I looked at there were 2 that had perished.  Both of those hives seemed to have plenty of food stores and no signs of disease.  Both of these hives were active the last time that the temps popped up over 50 in December.
My best guess is that they just got caught in the wrong spot for too long during that cold snap that we just went through.

[kebee]

 Papakeith, I am sorry to here that, good luck on the rest of you hives.

Ken

[apisbees]

sorry to hear that Keith, it happens a lot Bees do not check the long range forecast and will not leave the last bit of honey on one side of the hive till it is all used up. The cold will also contract the cluster causing the bees to loose contact with the stores on one side of the hive. fondant candy boards will provide feed above so the cluster can move.

[Marbees]

Sorry to hear that Keith, hope the rest of your hives survives.
This extended period of very cold weather worries me very much. On Saturday we had 7C here, but day was rainy and foggy, couldn't check on my girls. Fingers crossed.

[Perry]

Believe it or not Keith, that is about the norm for around here as of late. There are plenty that would be happy with that. 

[DLMKA]

were they sitting on any brood? The one I lost had a patch of capped brood a little smaller than the size of a baseball. Couldn't/wouldn't move off it and starved just an inch or so away from 40+ lbs of honey.

[Bakersdozen]

Sorry for you disappointment, Papakeith.  Like DLMKA said.  During a cold snap, and we certainly had one, sometimes they fail to move up and starve themselves even though honey is close by.
Our weather was almost 60 yesterday.  I checked on two hives and was shocked to see that they had eaten all the fondant I had put in there in December.  So I put some more in and hope I have another beautiful day that I can check them in February.

[Jen]

Baker- so glad your bees went for the fondant.

This sure blows the theory that I've been reading about. That the bees will go up for nourishment but not to the side. but Lazy Bkpr said that his most recent check showed that the bees were completely surrounds by food, up, down, and sides and they still perished.

Just doing the best that we can I guess

[Papakeith]

I suppose I should have taken pictures.  What was left on the comb was a sight.  small cluster, most of them face first down into the comb (hunting for nourishment I guess?).  one was toward the top of the bottom deep.  The upper deep had probably 6 full frames of honey and pollen. 

After my inspections, I started wondering if things might have turned out different if I was using wax foundation instead of plastic.  Would they be able to chew through the foundation if necessary to get to the supplies on the adjacent cells if wax were used?

[LazyBkpr]

Mine didnt PPK..   I have had this problem before with the specific strain of Italians I got from southern texas.. I say specific strain because its the only Italians I have had, and with the loss of this hive they are all gone, and they all perished the same way..  According to many, WHERE a bee comes from makes no difference.. Hawaii sends bees to Canada and supposedly they do fine there..     I can only speak of the bees I had and the problems with them. My other hives are doing well so far. Hives of Carniolan, New world Carniolan and feral/local bees..   I am going to get a couple of packages from a different southern source and see how they get along.
   Sounds like your bees did the same thing mine did, as if the cold was too much for those particular bees to handle.