Stink Bugs Attack Honey Bees

Well, I saw something new this weekend. Around the outside of one hive were about 8 stink bugs (squash bugs) happily chomping on our honey bees. Apparently the bugs will sometimes turn into predators instead of infesting our squash gardens.

We removed the ones we found and so far have not had any new ones show up. I will redesign our support system for the next season so as to provide larger water traps on each upright. The existing ones were designed to keep ants out - stink bugs have a longer reach.

Fall Bees

I realized that with running the hives and life in general it's been a long time since I added to this information. That was completely unintentional since I planned on talking my way though the process of starting new hives so someone new could read and see what was involved. Time to rectify this and show what I am doing to save honey bees.

A new package I installed this spring is going into Fall for the first time. There was a good supply of pollen and nectar early this Summer but I had to feed them some sugar syrup during early August since I saw honey supplies being depleted rather than being made. That worked and they continued strong growth and harvesting.

Now I see them driving off the drones for the winter to come. The queen is still laying a good number of eggs for the winter bees. We have had a lot of wet weather but on dry days you can see strong numbers of foragers once it warms up.

The bees are just like teenagers though and enjoy sleeping in until noon when the temps are low.