This month’s blog is written mid-way through the month as we finally enjoy a long-awaited holiday after a busy season! Although it has only been a few weeks since the last blog, we have been busy with the bees, making sure they are well fed and set up before we leave them.

On our rounds we have seen that most of the fondant we have given the bees has been eaten. We even put some fondant in some English feeders, which we wouldn’t normally do but because it hasn’t been too cold yet, the bees still managed to find the fondant up in the top. You can see here that these bees must have been hungry because the packets are completely empty!

The pollen patties we placed on top last month are going down a treat too. You can see from this picture that they are nibbling their way through this pack and it just gives them a pollen boost at this time of year when there isn’t quite as much to forage on naturally.

This month we have found that the bees have been a bit of a mixed bag. Some seem to be bringing in a lot of stores, while others are hardly finding anything. Perhaps this is because some colonies are seeming to be quite large, while others remain smaller. One particular hive which is doing really well, has expanded right through the hole in the crownboard, creating burr comb under the roof and creating quite the clean-up job for us!

On our return, we will be checking again for stores but mostly leaving the bees to it and packing them down completely for winter.