Bees, Temperature and Hours of Daylight

Factual Questions
1

I have a dozen or so fruit trees that normally bear bushels of fruit, but every now and then the trees bloom because of an early warm spell. If a big storm comes along after they flower, most of the blooms get knocked off and if they haven’t been pollinated yet I get very little fruit. I’m trying to understand the relationship between what triggers plants to bud and what causes honey bees to emerge. It seems to me that the temperature has a lot to do with the budding because it will happen later in a long winter, but the bees don’t come out during those early warm spells. Of course that’s only anecdotal and I don’t know what really causes either one.

If this is an unreasonably long and complicated question it would be great if someone could refer me to a site with more information. My google skills are failing me this morning.

2

The temp where I live was 60(f) yesterday and my bees were out buzzing around. Of course, there was nothing for them to find. This is a good opportunity for a beekeeper to see that a hive is still alive because they don’t show their faces and you don’t want to open the hive when it’s cold.

Bees don’t use calendars, they just come out whenever the temp is high enough to work. I’m just a beginner but 50 degrees seems to be about the point where they try to come out for a look.