My bees and I have been preparing for winter. I have been preparing by gathering wood, winterizing water supplies, and getting my woodstove re-bricked. My two beehives have been getting ready for winter by storing up precious amounts of honey—their food for the winter. I have been assisting them by feeding them sugar-water at the entrance to their hives, so they don’t have to use up resources to go and scavenge for food.
To my surprise, I came out to my hives last week to refill their sugar water, and I found a horde of bees swarming around the entrance of one of my hives. At this time of the year, my bees are relaxed and only a few hang out at the entrance coming and going. I took a closer look to see what was going on and discovered a massive bee battle! I knew immediately that my bees were being robbed.
“Robbing” happens in beehives when a hive has all of their honey stores ready for the winter, so they take off and to find other hives to sneak into to, break open their honey cells, and gorge themselves on the honey! UGH!!!! It is horrible because my bees have worked so hard to build up their honey supplies for winter and being robbed could kill the hive because their food source is being stolen and they won’t be able to make it through the winter.
Immediately recognizing that my bees were in a heated battle to save their hive, I ran to get my bee gear, an entrance-reducer, and a bed sheet. I put the entrance-reducer on my hive. This limits the space of the entrance from the entire opening to just a small hole and slows down enemies from entering. Next, I covered the hive with a sheet to allow the battle to cool down. My heart ached because I didn’t know what the damage was (and still don’t.) Did I catch it in time? The battle started within an hour of me being out there checking on them, so I hoped I had. I noticed the attacking bee colony then decided to redirect their attention to my second hive. I did the same thing there—added an entrance reducer and covered with a sheet.
UGH. The battle cooled down, and I was able to remove the sheet, but I kept the entrance reducers on both hives. I was going to check on my hives and see what the damage was this past Sunday, but guess what? I went out there and even with the entrance-reducer, my hives were being attacked again! I quickly threw sheets over them, and my other option is to move the hives. Currently my hives are over 100lbs, so I won’t be able to move them without help.
Now, I’m just praying that my hives haven’t been completely robbed and they can get strong enough for winter. A cold snap in the weather is coming this next week, so they only have a few more days to prepare. I will be adding insulation to my bees for the winter and praying they make it! My entire responsibility as the beekeeper is to try to make sure they make it through the winter, so here is to hoping!
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