Hi Karen:
My suggestion would be to start feeding immediately. 50/50 water sugar
syrup. This is just as a cushion until the bees get acclimated. If you
now have a honey on and it would suddenly cease, your brood would be in
trouble.
(If a mother is nursing her baby and the milk would suddenly dry up, the
baby would be in trouble.) Pardon my illustration, but if there is not
enough honey stored up the young bees would starve and set you back a
little later. Coming up from Florida would be shock enough.
 
Bob Neely
Goose Creek, SC USA
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On Tue, 20 May 1997 07:56:47 -0400 "Karen M. Ferner"
<[log in to unmask]> writes:
>Hi all.  My husband and I just got our bees.  They came up from
>Florida
>(to Rochester, NY) last Thursday.  As usual, the weather here is and
>has
>been cold.  When picking up the bees, it hailed for 5 minutes.  The
>weather looks like it will stay within 45-65 the rest of the week.  We
>found chilled brood in some hives and are wondering if we should start
>feeding them.  They are in apple orchards which are blooming and would
>be
>great if it was warm enough.  Will the bees stay inside to clean up
>the
>dead brood or will they venture out in the sunny periods, even though
>it's a bit chilly?  We have friends who are not too worried and say
>they
>will be fine.  Are we being too panicky?  It's 47 right now and isn't
>supposed to go past 57 today, but some sun is expected.  Sorry if this
>is
>a simple question for all you experts, maybe you can give us your
>opinion!
>Thanks in advance for your help.
>
>Karen Ferner
>