Well, my friends, I’m happy to say my Honey Bees had a very successful summer, and we are headed into the winter with four strong hives!  Now it is time to bid a fond farewell until next spring, while they settle in for the winter in their warm hives.  Unlike snow birds who fly south and bears who sleep away winter in hibernation, Honey Bees are like most Mainers and prefer to hunker down at home surrounded by family and eat…a lot.  These hard working ladies did most of the work by storing up precious nectar all summer long for their winter feast.  However, just to be on the safe side, Dad added “bee candy” to their hives as promised.  In case you forgot, part of my negotiations with the Bees last month for their honey, was in exchange we’d make them bee candy.

Bee candy is basically sugar and water that is hardened into cakes and available for the Bees to eat if their honey stores run low.  Seriously, my Bees will survive winter on a sugar high.  But unlike Mom who annoys us during the winter when she’s buzzing around the house on a sugar high with cabin fever, my Honey Bees need that energy to say warm.  Bees survive the winter by huddling together and vibrating their wings to generate heat, while moving around the hive together as one big mass feeding on the honey they produced over the summer.  Would you believe they can keep their hive as warm as 90 degrees fahrenheit!  That’s way warmer than even what my grandmother sets her thermostat, and she likes it HOT!

Yet I would be remiss as a “Helicopter Bee Parent” if I didn’t also winterize the hives by wrapping them in insulation to keep in the heat generated by the Bees, and help block those cold Nor’easter gales.  This year Dad decided to get fancy, and made for each of our four hives a camouflage insulation shell, rather than the pink one he used last year.  This did raise an eyebrow with Mom, who reminded him that they are girls and perhaps would prefer pink.  But I have to agree with Dad here, that the camouflage hives look awesome.  Besides, there are bigger concerns than aesthetics to worry about!  Dad also needs to make sure that the hives are well ventilated.  All that vibrating generates condensation, which if not vented properly could build up within the hive causing my poor Bees freeze to death!  But I have faith they will be snug as a bug.

However, it wouldn’t be my Honey Bees if they didn’t give me one last thing to worry about before the long winter months ahead.  Would you believe once again Azzza Hive is under siege?  Earlier in the summer they vanquished the Ant invaders, and now they are doing battle against Yellow Jackets!  The Yellow Jackets are trying to enter the hives and steal all my Bees’ hard work!  Luckily they are no match for my ladies, and they are being kept out.  But it made for a rather dangerous situation for Dad as he wrapped the hives with all that fighting swirling around him.  Hence why I have no photos from Dad’s last hive inspection before the winter.  Mom kept a safe distance with her camera.  She did though capture a great video of Dad running around the yard in full Beekeeper gear trying to get away from an angry swarm of Honey Bees and Yellow Jackets, who for a brief moment united to identify Dad as their common enemy.  Too bad Dad won’t let me share that video here.  So you’ll just have to accept this old photo of me with Azzza Hive from last winter, and this photo taken on a much calmer day of the hives ready for winter.  Paws crossed I have done all I can, and on that first warm day of spring I will see them happily buzzing around the yard once again!