The Bees are Out and About - Pollen in December???

Today as the "winter" temperature rose to the high 60s, the bees were out and about at all four hives. There was orientation behavior, particularly at Mellona and at Aristaeous2. I was pleased to see so much flying because I know there is life at all the hives - what a relief.



At Persephone, I saw two bees with full loads of yellow pollen in their pollen baskets - can you believe it? What in the world might be blooming in December? BTW, I "googled" pollen in Georgia in December and found that the only pollen present right now in Georgia is cedar...so it must be the source of the yellow pollen being brought into the hives.

In addition, that probably means the queen is doing OK because there must be babies to feed, although they may simply be refortifying their stores.

If you click on the picture below, you can see the bee at the entry way with one pollen-laden leg. Both pollen-carrying bees went into the hive too quickly for me to catch more than that.

Of course, another task when it's flying weather is the carrying out of the dead. Many bee bodies lie cast away on my deck. I'm sure the wren will have a feast.

BeeKeeping Ornaments

I couldn't post over the holiday because I forgot to take my transfer cord for my camera to the mountains. I did want to share my beekeeping ornaments. The collection grew a little this year.

I've loved the beekeeping angel below ever since my friend, Roberta, gave her to me.



My daughter Becky gave me the two bee ornaments that are flying and the beekeeping glove with the skep in it is a gift from my book club friend, Nancy.

I never see beekeeping ornaments, although I do look. I'm lucky to have others who find them for me!

Belated Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.

Honeybee Hand Cream

I made a new batch of hand cream to give to people that I love with their Christmas gifts. I didn't have enough sweet almond oil but I did have red palm oil. I changed my formula to include less beeswax so that it wouldn't be so stiff and used the red palm oil since I didn't have any sweet almond oil.

Surprise! Surprise! The hand cream came out more like lotion and the red palm oil turned it bright yellow! I should package it in black and yellow striped containers. People seem to like it so far. I am waiting to hear from my nephew Clifford who is a fan of this lotion. I sent him a container of both the old formula and the new and hope to hear what he thinks.

Metro Atlanta Short Course coming up in January - Register NOW

If you are in the Atlanta area, the Metro Atlanta Beekeepers' Association offers a fabulous short course for beginning beekeepers that happens this coming January on January 24, 2009 at the Atlanta Botanical Garden.

The focus is always on helping one get started "bee-ing" a beekeeper and you'll find it well worth your while if you are within driving distance of Atlanta. We actually had a beekeeper from Mississippi come to take our course last year!

A good description of what will be offered and what you may learn can be found here.

If you sign up after reading this, be sure and tell them that you read about it on my blog! I'd love to know if writing about it here has any impact.

My Golden Bee Suit ARRIVED!

I am so thrilled! My Golden Bee suit that was my birthday present arrived today. What a fabulous suit!

It is made for my height and is just perfect. Even in the winter in Atlanta, I can tell that it will be so comfortable to wear. The ventilation is amazing. The hood, although it zips off, is easy to manage and see through. In the pictures below I didn't draw up the strings around my ankle but it is set to keep the bees out of my pants as well.



My new dog Hannah likes the suit too. She thinks she likes the beehives but she is new and hasn't been stung yet although she sniffs around all the hives. Just wait until summer comes! Hannah will learn to respect the bees, I imagine.


This is the best thing that has happened in my beekeeping life in a while. What a great birthday present!



The pockets are oriented so that I can actually put my hands in them (unlike my other suit). Hooray!

If any of you want one, you have to special order it from The Golden Bee Company in Metairie, Louisiana. Their phone number is 504-456-8805. Sue, the daughter of the creators of the suit, is the person to whom you speak. I ordered mine the week before Thanksgiving and expected to wait a long, long time to get it but it came today, less than a month from my order placement.

The Mortician Bees are Working Themselves to Death

Below you can see several views of the deck in front of the hives. The area is littered with dead bees. I swept the area clean about three days ago and since then the mortician bees have been busily carrying out the dead. During the winter, bees continue to live and die all winter. While the bees that over winter tend to live longer than the approximate 6 week life span of the summer bees, still bees die and their bodies need to be removed from the hive. The bees don't fly when it's too cold (usually below 50) so when there are warm days, the bees leave the hive to remove the bodies and to relieve themselves.

Interestingly tonight the deck is completely clean, but I didn't sweep it. Instead I saw two wrens making a feast out of the bodies lying on the deck, and cleaning it up for me at the same time. The cycle of life is amazing that way!

There are bees in Persephone

Follow-up note: This morning in the rain, I opened Persephone to see if I needed to add a baggie feeder. There were bees sucking the last of the syrup out of the baggie currently under the shim - lots of bees. So I replaced the baggie feeder with a new one and breathed a sigh of relief, at least for now!

There were also at least 30 SHBs. I ignored them - didn't even give them the hive tool treatment because I wanted to get in and out of there in a hurry, but I noted that they are LIVING through the winter in my hive.

It's a Dog Eat Dog World in the Beehive

Upon looking closely at the ground around Persephone, in the leaves that have gathered around the hives, there are tons of dead bees. Bees and bee parts are scattered everywhere. Obviously the hive was robbed and a fierce battle ensued.

I fed this hive before Thanksgiving. Both the small nuc hive and it were needing food so I gave each of these two hives baggie feeders under the inner cover and well protected from other bees. However, during my absence for the week of Thanksgiving, both hives were robbed. The absconded nuc hive was demolished.

However, I don't know about the state of Persephone.



It's so sad to see bees in such a devastated pile of dead bodies.



When I first looked at Persephone, the hive landing was bare and clean. At the end of the day in which I took the above pictures in the morning, the landing looked like this below. I believe there are live bees in Persephone who carried the dead to the landing during this day during a warmer moment.



Tonight after a relatively warm day, the landing of Persephone (as is also true of all of my hives) is cleaned off. I hope the bees left in Persephone have a queen and can make it through the rest of the winter.

The feeding question remains. I fed those bees in what is considered the safest way for winter. I think I will open the hive when it is cold in the morning and add a new bag. Maybe in the cold, other bees won't notice the food and rob the hive. It is going to rain all day tomorrow so the bees won't be flying in both rain and cold.

There's hope for Persephone yet! We're almost to the Winter Solstice when her stay in the Underworld will be over.