There’s an autumn chill in the air these past few mornings, thus signaling to my Honey Bees it is time to start preparing for the long winter ahead.  Here’s an update on what Sorority Row is up to these days.  First off, look out boys, the girls are cleaning house!  As with last year, the Worker Bees are removing the Drones from their hives.  In case you forgot, Drones are the frat boys of the hive.  They spend their days lounging about the hive, eating precious stores of nectar, and doing very little if anything to contribute to the colony’s wellbeing other than mate with the Queen of a nearby hive.  So it is the natural lifecycle of the colony for the female Worker Bees in the fall to systematically kick out or even kill the Drones in order to ensure the survival of the hive over the winter.  Ok, to be perfectly honest, although this sounds mean, it really is fun to watch as the female Bees drag the Drones out of the hive.  The boys can put up quite a fight, but the females are relentless!  Below are a couple of pictures of the Drones being evicted.

Now the reason why they are kicking out the Drones is to ensure they have enough nectar to feed the remaining Bees, especially their Queen.  To help them prepare for winter, Dad started feeding them sugar water so they can produce more food.  He jokingly calls this their “Freshman 15.”  But in this case he’s not talking about Honey Bees who gained a bit of weight.  Instead, Dad is referring to the big bags of sugar he keeps asking Mom to buy in the groceries.  Which by the way, after buying 4 ten pound bags of sugar during a recent trip, the cashier now gives Mom a very concerned look!  Oh sure Mom could reveal the purpose of all that sugar, but it makes for much more interesting conversations if she keeps them guessing.  Anyways, each week the Bees eat about 2 half gallon mason jars full of sugar water.  This will supplement the pollen they are still collecting and will help them make enough food for the long cold winter ahead.  Here is a photo of the Honey Bees gathering around the sugar water jars Dad placed in their hives.

Dad is particularly concerned that two of the smaller hives have enough food stored to survive.  My Chuck BEEly Hive got off to a rocky start in the spring, with it’s lack of a Queen.  Eventually a new Queen took control and the hive is now buzzing with activity.  However, because of that late start they are behind the stronger hives in terms of storing food.  Last year because they were without a Queen Bee for so long, it was an easy decision to combine Chuck BEEly Hive with the stronger Azzza Hive for the winter.  This year that isn’t an option because they have a Queen.  If we introduce a healthy queen into a strong hive with their own Queen…well war will ensue and chaos will reign until one of the Queens is dead.  If that’s the case, making food is the least of the Worker Bees’ worries.  So we’ve decided to leave it as a single box hive that is small and mighty!  It isn’t our only single box hive this year.  Although the Dire Wolf Beez got off to a strong start, they for some reason slowed down midsummer, and only filled their first brood box as well.  Again, combining the two small hives isn’t an option because although neither hive is particularly strong, and they may or may not do well on their own this winter, together could be a disaster.  Paws crossed we made the right decision.  At least Azzza’s Hive continues to thrive, and although ornery, Lemeez Beez Hive are doing well too.

Ok, I’m going to let you in on a little secret.  Lemeez Beez have every right to be mad at Dad at the moment.  A week ago he accidentally flooded their hive with one of the jars of sugar water!  The cap wasn’t on tight enough.  So when he flipped the jar over, the whole cap came off and the water went gushing into the hive!  Out came all the Bees and they immediately confronted Dad!  Oh boy…or should I say girl…were they mad!  Luckily Dad had his protective gear on, so he wasn’t stung.  Even luckier was Mom, who doesn’t trust Lemeez Hive, so stopped taking photos and left the area long before the great flood.  All week Dad worried he may have killed their Queen, or driven her to leave.  However, thankfully after checking earlier this week he saw signs she was still there and laying eggs.  So all is right in their kingdom!  But they sure were mad as they flapped their wings to dry themselves outside the hive, then had to go cleanup the mess Dad made inside!  He’s lucky he’s not a Drone or they would have kicked him to the curb!