There’s a lot of them, and they’re actively buzzing around. I suppose they’ll have a good chance to survive the winter, unless a bear gets them. I probably won’t take much if any honey, so they’ll have more.
There’s a lot of them, and they’re actively buzzing around. I suppose they’ll have a good chance to survive the winter, unless a bear gets them. I probably won’t take much if any honey, so they’ll have more.
You did check the honey they’ve collected for melezitose honey?
If there’s too much melezitose in the honey (around 10% appears for be the critical amount), it cristallses and bees can’t eat it during winter, which is bad for obvious reasons.
No, this wasn’t in my textbook… Maybe it’s just not gathered from flowers in my location?
If you’ve never experienced it it’s apparently not around in dangerous amounts, but that can eventually change.
It can be found in flowers (although I don’t know which) and in honeydew.
I’ve lost one hive to it some years ago when I wasn’t aware of that danger (and all went great until then) and now I’m extra careful.
The bees starved/froze in place when it was to cold for them to move to another area and all they could find at their place was crystallised honey.
I found them not moving with a big pile of grated crystals below.
Nowadays I rather take plenty of honey from them and feed them properly for winter.