Deadout

A day no bees will die ?  I don't know when that will be.  With the frigid cold in our forecast, I fear many colonies will perish in the next few days.  Is it "survival of the fittest ?"  Maybe so but nothing is sadder to a beekeeper than a dead bee colony.  The bees in this picture are dead and it is my fault.  Yes they would have probably died even if they lived in the wild without beekeeper management but they didn't die in the woods.  They died in a box that I put them in.  They obviously starved during a recent cold spell even though all the colonies seemed to have enough food not very long ago.  The warmer weather we have had causes the bees to use more food.  Maybe these bees were not a thrifty with their food reserves, maybe a larger colony robbed them of some food, maybe they were weak from a virus or other health issues.  We will never know.  Failing colonies are a part of beekeeping, sometimes no matter what we do a colony will die -  it does sadden my heart though :(

Bringing in the last of fall pollen

We have had some frost and a light freeze. On this warm November day the bees are making those last flights and I see some dandelion pollen coming in...(see the bees with the little orange balls on their legs !)

Fall rush

Busy flight afternoons like this one will soon end as frost will kill most of the nectar producing plants. The bees seem to know this and rush to harvest.