Busy as a bee

Since we still have no real fall/winter weather – except tonight, when we should experience a brief freeze, and tomorrow, which is forecast to be in the low 30s, to be followed by another string of mid-80s highs/mid-60s lows – the girls are still out, scouting for anything flowering from which they can gather nectar and/or pollen.

Working away

There are still plants flowering and blooming here, and until the weather does turn to fall/winter for a brief time before spring comes calling, the girls will continue to work as if there has been no season change at all. That includes the queens not slowing down their laying patterns, as there is nothing environmentally to tell them to do so, as here: the queen is nearly directly in the middle of this photo – she has the longer abdomen. The white things in the cells below her in the image are larvae.

All hail the queen

That, in turn, means that here in our little piece of the world, we have to be more aware than usual about the possibility of a swarm emerging from any of the hives. This late in the season seems very odd for such an occurrence, but the weather itself has been odd, so it calls for flexibility and mindfulness to avoid being caught off-guard, with nothing ready to house a swarm should a hive spawn one.

Hive 14

 

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