You might think it has all gone quiet in my beehive but you would be wrong. My bees are still extremely busy and buzzing merrily away.
Things have calmed down in the hive, the wasps have pretty much died out and so the home guard is not quite so aggressive as it was, this means I can get near without my bee suit on and continue to watch them doing their daily business.
I opened up the hive about two weeks ago to see what was going on and sadly there was still no sign of any eggs, larvae or sealed brood which is not very good.
Three combs have fallen off the top bars and the bees have stuck them down securely removing any chance I had of rehanging them for them.
I expected them to empty out the stores and move the stores to other combs, but so far they haven’t, so as it is so late in the season I have decided to leave them to it.
I have been feeding them, but they have also been out foraging and bringing in nectar and pollen.
Many of the beekeeping books tell you that if they are bringing in pollen then they are feeding brood, but some beeks that I’ve been talking to actually say that most hives store up to a kilo of pollen, or pollen bread anyway, so it doesn’t necessarily mean that the bees are feeding babies. I’m learning all the time.
I also learned this week that I should have been adding the feed at night so as not to confuse the bees, so now this complicated ritual has to be done in the dark!
Fortunately the bees are calmer now, so I don’t need to suit up to add this thick sugary syrup. They seem to have pretty much filled all their combs now which means they have food for the winter, whether it is enough remains to be seen, but again the general consensus is that the colony will reduce to the point where the food stores are just enough to sustain them through the winter.
I’m a bit more clued up now so I will keep a closer watch on them, and since I have an observation window anyway I can look on a sunny day without letting out the precious heat and pheromones.
