September 28 Where did all the flowers go?

Honeybee on Autumn Joy Sedum in my yard early September 2014.

Summer has flown away with the birds and butterflies.  The pumpkins were harvested from the garden today and mouse guards were put  on the hives.  I can't believe how fast my first summer with the honeybees went!  They, thankfully, have not left me.  I find them on my asters, sedum and the few remaining zinnias and cosmos in the garden.  They found me at my kitchen window yesterday morning. I looked up from the sink and noticed four to five honeybees right outside the window. I looked closer and counted approximately thirty honeybees in the pampas grasses  next to the house. They were gathering pollen from the tips of grasses where the plume was about to flower?    I would not have expected that, but they were very busy little acrobats scrambling up and down the tips gathering large amounts of pollen. I don't know how some of them were able to fly back to they hive as large as their pollen loads were!
Three of my hives are very strong and stocked with ample amounts of honey going into winter. One of the hives is not.  It was the hive that was queenless in August. I gave them of frame of brood with which to raise a new queen and they were acting as if they had a queen. They were not aggressive when I checked them, so I gave them more time thinking they may have a virgin queen in the hive.  Unfortunately, this hive developed a working layer. That fact, combined with dwindling numbers and obvious queenlessness, made it a very weak hive. I can't combine it with a stronger hive because of the working layer.  I saved the comb from this hive and distributed it to two of my other hives.

The Honeybee on  my grasses doing acrobatics to gather the pollen. This is her underside. It was a nice warm September morning and there were 30-40 bees in this thatch of grasses scrambling up and down the soon to be plumes collecting pollen.

Honeybee on grasses gathering pollen.

Had to smile when I realized my hives were surrounded by Goldenrod.  I did not realize this in May when I chose the location.

Honeybee on Goldenrod.

So busy!  I just sat in a patch of Goldenrod and marveled at all the bees working.  We had a lot of rain before the Goldenrod bloomed, hope this helped with the nectar flow. It seemed to end too quickly though.



 Honeybee alighting onto Goldenrod bloom. September 2014.

Honeybees on Autumn Joy Sedum. The bees seemed to enjoy this only for a week or so when it first started to bloom. From what I could see, they were only taking nectar.

Remember my friends with the top-bar hive that planted buckwheat? They gave me a bag of  Buckwheat seeds which I planted in the middle of August. I planted about a 40 square foot area.  It popped up five days later and was blooming with my honeybees all over it by the middle of September!  It bloomed for a couple of weeks, but has now turned brown. I may try to harvest it and enjoy some buckwheat pancakes.  It was great forage for the bees. Wish I could have planted more. Maybe next year.

Honeybee on Cosmos in my garden. One of the few flowers still blooming. Today is October 2 and there were still a few honeybees on it.

Honeybee on Aster.

Zinnias still blooming! Honeybee enjoying a warm autumn day.

Honeybee on Aster.

My bees coming and going from the hive late September 2014.  I will miss this sight. I've enjoyed sitting out there a few minutes (OK, more than a few minutes) or so everyday just observing them.  They are relaxing, kind of like people watching fish in a tank? Anyway, I love it and I will miss them this winter.

Beekeepers warned me that Goldenrod stinks up the apiary.  I would agree that it does have a very distinct smell, but it didn't smell horrid or make me want to gag like some smells do.  My kids would get a whiff of it in the yard on occasion and say, "What is that weird smell"  Others say it smells like sweaty gym socks.  I try to avoid smelling people's socks, so I can't compare.