I have mentioned that I wanted to re queen this month. The reason was to have the new queen lay bunches and bunches of fall eggs so the bees would be very strong and young going into Winter. That would equal out to be a very strong overwintering colony. However, that ain’t gonna happen. My queen supplier said that in order to make queens, the bees needed pollen. His was not bringing in any and now he has to feed pollen substitute just to try to save his bee through Winter.

I may try to get some out of GA. They will cost more, but if I can get them, I will be better off. If Fred Rossman doesn’t have any, then I will just have to wait until spring.

I checked my apiaries in the northern part of the county and I found one that was queen-less. They are putting honey in all the cells and by the time I get back to them, most of the bees will have died. There are enough bees at this time to try to combine with another colony if I can get back soon, otherwise, I will just have to collect the honey in the late fall and clean the hive boxes for next year’s splits. Of all the hives I did check, I can pull another super of honey off each of them. The rest of the bees are in the two counties east of me. Those I will try to check this weekend.

Read some more books and plan to visit some of the workshops within a couple hundred miles. You can find out how some of the other beekeepers operate.