Hi, this is Adriana, the beekeeper from South Mountain Bees.
Today I got to talk about bees to about 80 families on a Zoom call and they loved this video, so I thought I'd share it with you.
This is the time of year when the bees are filling up their pantry to last through the winter. Between the golden rod and the knotweed, there's a lot of pollen for the bees to gather. You can see how the honey comb is full of pollen of different shades of yellow and orange, and if you look closely you can see that different cells have different colors. The bees store them very neatly by flower source. Can you find a darker orange one?
Something else you can see in this picture are capped cells. Look for the places where you can't quite see the wax hexagons.
Those are actually brood cells. From each of those cells a new bee will hatch, and since it is September, those are the bees that will survive the winter inside the hive.
Notice that the bees are recycling the "nursery" as storage space for winter food. Each of those cells where you now see pollen, had brood in it not so long ago.
Here's the video I mentioned at the beginning. You can see how bees loaded with pollen in their hind legs come into the hive. Can you see the different colors of pollen that the bees are bringing in?
Hope you enjoyed the video, and remember that with every soap, every lip balm, and every jar of honey you purchase from us, you are helping Save the bees!
