Rain on the Bee Parade

Normally, this might sound like a bad thing, but I think the bees are grateful for any drop of moisture at all. We got a shower and then the sun came out, followed by another shower and more sun. Each time the sun shows its face, the bees get quickly to work bringing in precious water, nectar, and loads of pollen. It seems they get more pollen in the morning then in the late afternoon, but I have never seen so much coming in to the hive as I did a few hours ago. I am implying from this that the queen is laying and the brood is being well fed.

I gave them a double batch of sugar water on Thursday and I am hoping that it holds them for a week. Now that I have a second brood box on each hive, inspecting is more involved. I think I just need to check the top box from now on unless I think there is a problem. Getting a peek into the bottom box will now take twice as long and be very disruptive to the hive. When I fed them, I could see that there was comb being drawn on many of the new frames, so that is a good start. If I can get comb on those frames for the start of next season, I will get a faster start than I did this year for sure.

Because I continue to feed them the honey they are making won’t be good for harvesting, but will be great the bees over winter. I am beginning to think that I will have enough. If we can just get a little more rain, the fall nectar and pollen slow should be fine.