Monday, October 2, 2017

Less pollen coming in

As I sat last night with my binoculars, looking at my hives, for the first time, I saw very little pollen going in.

For the past few weeks, my yard has smelled like sour milk by the end of the day.  After much research, I learned that this is a smell that is from goldenrod pollen!  I have a lot of goldenrod around and in those few weeks, bees would come in with their pollen sacs full of golden pollen.

Last night, I saw practically no bees with golden pollen.  I also didn't smell that smell.

 I guess the summer is truly over, even though there has been no frost...and it's been gorgeous!  I have some amount of late blooming flowers they can pollinate and probably some asters nearby.

Stuff to do:

1) Begin moving hives together, a foot at a time (or less) until they are close enough to help insulate each other.
2) Continue feeding Hive 2 with fumicillin
3) Add varroa strips to Hive 2
4) Feed Hivc #3
5) Remove any full supers off from Hive 1 and then consolidate into one super.

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