December Update

Sorry for the delay in posting! So far the Winter in Georgia has been relatively warm and uneventful. I've done some supplemental feeding with 2:1 sugar water. I did this because the hives felt light when I lifted them & it also gives me a little piece of mind. The upcoming season is rapidly approaching. Sometime in late January or early February I will give the hives a kick start by adding some pollen patties to encourage the Queen to begin laying. I may also feed some 1:1 sugar water. I expect to successfully over winter all 3 hives and am looking forward to watching the hive populations explode this Spring. I have extra hive bodies and honey supers ready to go when they are needed. I have decided to use the 9 5/8" deep hives for the 2nd brood box. This will ensure they have enough room to expand. I travel a lot for work and am skeptical about using the medium supers for the brood chamber. The last thing I want is to lose most of the population to a swarm.

I have been surprised by the amount of traffic most days. As I previously stated the Winter hasn't been too cold and most days warm up enough for the bees to break cluster and fly. I was surprised to see that a lot of pollen is being gathered. Most returning foragers are loaded with pollen. I wonder what the source of this pollen is?