Carlyle Gateway October Hive Update

Nov 5

From Beekeepers, James & Nadine:

The honeybees on the rooftop of Carlyle Gateway had an eventful last month as the days shortened and temperatures dropped in October. At the very end of September, the northernmost hive decided to re-queen their colony by removing the old queen and subsequently raised a batch of new ones. The colony could have decided to take this action because of some kind of environmental stressor or because the old queen wasn’t laying enough eggs. Whatever the reason, it was a risky gambit so late in the season! Luckily, a new queen emerged, mated and started laying eggs, all in the span of three weeks! We gave the colony some extra support during this time with some supplemental feeding, but sometimes you just have to let the colony work their magic. We’ll be monitoring both hives closely to make sure they have the best chance of making it through the cold winter months.

This month the worker bees have been capping the last of the honey stores they’ve built up through the last few months with wax. This process also signals the final days of the male drone bees. A drone’s only responsibility is to mate with another colony’s queen. Otherwise, they do not do any tasks related to rearing young, cleaning the hive or foraging for resources. So when the colony’s resources started to get tight this month, the guard bees physically blocked the drones from re-entering the hive. It may seem harsh, but the colony knows best!