Incoming Autumn Pollen

Im so happy to see all 10 of my colonies bringing in pollen. Pollen is of the utmost importance at this time when the colony raise winter bees. You see winter bees are those who have fat bodies in their abdomen where they transform pollen into a substance called Vitellogenin also known as their fountain of youth. Summer bees lack this because they need more space in their bodies to collect nectar. Winter bees dont need to forage so all they need now is to feed on a variety of pollen to store enough Vitellogenin in their fat bodies to be able to more than 6 month which ensures many bees survive the long cold winters. One can easily say that bees dont only store honey and pollen for the winter but also Vitellogenin within their bodies too. Not all pollen has the same properties and for that reason bees collect an array of pollens from different plant species.

 Orange pollen

 Yellow pollen

Creamy pollen

Bees seem to be seriously interested in the Nasturtium flowers

and for the first time I see them working the Lettuce flowers in our garden

 Wasps are trying their best to get into the hives and rob the honey

As you can see I have reduced the entrance size to 1/3 and the Wasp had no chance to enter.

During today's feeding of sugar syrup I peaked behind the last comb and saw that most hives have started to fill it with sugar syrup. Soon to stop winter feeding I hope. So far I have given 60 kg of sugar to 8 colonies (2 colonies had enough of their own stores).