Even though we are in the throes of winter now, the days are already getting longer. Yes, it's cold. The stock ponds are frozen over. It can be very dreary and monochromatic this time of the year. No, we haven't had any good ice storms or blizzards, yet. However, I've already seen the light at the end of the tunnel!
I hadn't fed my new swarm in a couple of weeks, so I cracked open the top honey supers to take a look. They'd drained their feed trough long before. So, I added more 2:1 syrup and a pollen patty cake. Meanwhile, I peeked in to see what they have been up to...
They're quite jurassic in size and have set some wee baby gourds already. How did they accomplish this you ask? With the help of bumblebees.
I had just gotten home (week ago Saturday) and was checking over my garden, picking a few items, and on the way out I noticed - the Swarm! It was a nice size swarm and so we set about trying to encourage them to stay by moving them into the empty hive about 150 feet away.
