the ones in the centre of the clump will have some protection from the others. some may well survive even if it gets really cold. you could always scoop some of it into a bucket of pond water and place in a frost free place until it warms up a bit after the cold snap.

That's a really good idea SBG! I'll do that tomorrow if we aren't snowed in! Nearly dark now.

I think the frogs will be just fine. They are surprisingly resilient. They normally go into hibernation during cold weather with some sort of 'antifreeze' they produce. It's built into them. I would just leave them be and let them do their thing. Disturbing them or upsetting them is what will kill them. Even if they get frozen in ice, when the ice melts, they will come to like nothing ever happened. Here is an article you may find useful.

How do frogs survive winter? Why don't they freeze to death?
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-do-frogs-survive-wint/

I think she was meaning the frog spawn BG. Some here do die in the ice. the severe winters 2010/11 2011/12 put paid to at least 8 frogs in our pond. they were frozen solid and just rotten when thawed. no coming back to life there like some other species. Leopard frog I think is one that can.. I know some species can freeze and rethaw but I don't think the European species is one of them.
They will burrow shallowly into mud at the bottom of a water body our go into the compost bins or under thick layers of leaf litter. As long as they stay moist they can take up oxygen via their skins as well as using lungs.

That's interesting SBG. I wonder how they would come this far in evolution without human intervention. The frogs here are still deep in hibernation and won't emerge until late March - spawning takes place a few weeks later, well into Spring.

Yes, it's the spawn I was wondering about, not the frogs themselves. I think they've spawned rather early and we are about to have a very cold snap. I have had frogspawn freeze before and be no good afterwards. Someone has told me that what is beneath the water will be ok, but not that on the surface.

I think backyard ponds are an entirely different ecosystem from a vast natural pond we normally associate with frogs. I hope you can save them. Their numbers worldwide are dwindling.

that's very true BG.

Are they toads or frogs? Toads will travel to a body of water large or small to spawn. Frogs will come up from the depths of that pond to do the same. I would take no intervention for out of a clump of a hundred viable eggs in the end most likely very few will survive to reproduce when taking into consideration the hazards of a natural world which are well beyond our control.

our native common toad lay their eggs in strings like a bead necklace, not in clumps, so these are frogs loosestrife. :o)

I would take some out in a bucket and protect it. Hard frost does for it.