The Latest with Dem Bees

Well, it's been awhile, huh? You may have thought my interest in my bees waned with the loss of the Georgia Girls. Admittedly, it was a blow, but I've soldiered on. With other projects and obligations around the house, it has been the blog that has suffered, unfortunately. Finding time to sit down and make an entry has been difficult, while at the same time, the colder weather has reduced the activity level on my part and the bees.

After Georgia went down in flames, I carefully dismantled the hives and allowed the marauders to finish cleaning out the frames. Some had been torn up pretty thoroughly by wax moths and those I discarded. The ones that were salvageable I stored away in sealed plastic bags for future use, along with the hive boxes and other hive components. The last I saw of my beautiful Georgia queen and her blue dot, she was wandering, alone on the bottom board with nary an attendant to wait on her. A pitiful sight! I gave her another day or so to fly off or die, as I just didn't have the heart to perform a mercy killing. She had done so well for the first four or five months of her reign, but Mother Nature, while neutral, takes no prisoners. Georgia Queen lost.

While the weather remained warm, the Arlington hive bustled with activity. Several workers were seen hauling full pollen sacs into the hive and there could be seen daily orientation flights in front of the hive that featured hundreds of bees. As an experiment, I placed two full honey supers left behind by Georgia on their hive to see if it might have any ill effects on the Arlington bees. As best as I could tell, to this point, no harm seems to have resulted from it as they began to slowly empty the comb from these supers.

The weather began to get colder and activity slowed considerably in front of my remaining hive. Each morning I would find dead bees and brood on the landing board and very few girls flying around. This worried me because this was how the Georgia collapse began. Eventually, I began to fear that Arlington was going to give up the ghost as well. For days on end I saw no activity or even dead bees at the entrance. I had inserted an entrance reducer to cut down on drafts into the hive and I would poke a stick into the entrance to see if I could get a response, but nothing. The thought of losing my other hive left me mildly depressed, let me tell you! Of course, temperatures were generally getting no more than in the 50s during the day and much chillier than that at night, so I clung to the hope that they were just staying indoors for warmth. As my mood reached its lowest point, Indian Summer arrived the beginning of Thanksgiving week with temps reaching to nearly 80 on a couple of days. It was as if an alarm clock had gone off and the bees woke up. Suddenly, for 3 or 4 days, I saw large congregations of bees on the landing board and winging about. They worked diligently removing their dead from inside the hive and I even saw some returning to the hive bearing pollen! They were ALIVE!!!

Having developed a strong attachment to my little friends by now, I can't tell you how excited I was to see them enjoying the fine weather. I felt I had another good reason for celebrating Thanksgiving!

With the holiday came a cold snap and once again bees are scarce around the hive. Last night, I put my ear to the side of the hive and heard a reassuring buzz eminating from within. I pictured them in a big cluster fighting the cold, but surviving. Of course, it's only November, so they have a long way to go, but this week has made me feel hopeful. We'll just have to see what happens.

The good news is that cold bees = no stings!