Spring

The honey bees are out collecting pollen from the first flowers of spring

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Getting The Honey Bees Ready For Winter

I checked in on the bees today to get them ready for winter.

First removed one of the boxes that had a hole in the corner. The bees seemed to love the extra entrance during the summer, but that hole would’ve let the cold in all winter so it had to go. The bees were very upset I was moving their honey around.

I scraped off some extra comb and got a little treat for myself.

There wasn’t much brood in the hive, which is a little worrying since most of the current bees will die soon and the bees that hatch out now have to survive all winter and keep the queen warm. That’s another thing that concerns me a little: I didn’t see the queen bee. I don’t always find her but I would’ve liked to confirm that she’s still alive before the winter. The bees were already getting angry with me so I did what I had to and got out as quick as possible.

I gave them their fall mite treatment and closed the hive back up.

Last thing I did was put the reducer in the entrance way. That will also help keep the cold out.

That’s it for today. Next time I check on the hive I will put a cork in the top entrance, and change the reducer to he smallest opening, again to keep out the cold. For now the fall has been very mild so I will leave it until we stay below freezing at night.