Busy, busy bees

What a lovely day, today and very good flying weather for bees.  They are coming back to the hive covered in white pollen which makes them look a little mutant!  This is from - love it or hate it - Himalayan Balsam.  The scourge of conservationists, it is a wonderful insect, and particularly, honey bee plant.  See how busy they are ...

By now, there should be 50,000 to 60,000 bees in the hive - wow!  That's a lot of bees to be working with.

Apart from bringing back pollen and nectar to the hive, they'll also be defending it against predators.  Mostly me, disturbing them with my regular inspections.  However, at this time of year, wasps will be attracted to the source of carbohydrate (honey) and will be attempting to get into the hive to rob it from the bees.

The guard at the entrance of the hive reduces the area that the bees have to defend and is very useful.  Once the winter comes, the guard is turned upside down reducing the defensive area even further, as there will be less bees in the hive then.  Mice looking for a warm home are kept out by this narrowing of the entrance.

If the hive is really strong and there aren't many wasps around, then the guard can be taken out altogher facilitating the heavy bee traffic as well.