My in-laws are visiting from Mumbai, and I was happy to have a beautiful October day to take them out to the hive. Unfortunately, the girls were a bit defensive this morning so they had to move to a safe distance to watch and avoid getting buzzed. Usually, I can get a couple supers deep before the girls get annoyed, but today they started chasing away the visitors from the beginning.
Even though Austin is in bloom, I think we could use another round of rain to keep the nectar flow going. Not much done with the empty honey super I put back on the hive after last week’s harvest, but all the other supers have plenty of activity.
I’ve been noticing a lot more drone cells this week and last. I even saw a drone starting to emerge, but was unable to get a good picture. They will probably enjoy another month of easy living, but then the hive will kick all the drones out in November when the weather cools down. Enjoy it while you can boys.
I haven’t seen Large Marge in forever, but her egg laying pattern is still awesome and the girls are producing some beautiful frames of brood. They are also stocking away pollen, and I’m really going to try and get a picture next week of a frame filled with multi-colored pollen.
Since I couldn’t get a lot of photos of the hive this week, here are some pictures of bees enjoying the fall blooms here in Austin. These are the girls on some Frostweed.
Kidney Wood is also in bloom and is very attractive to honey bees.
Urban Beekeeping in Austin, Texas 