If you can remember back to early Spring, I told you about how I had ordered four new packages of Honey Bees.  My mail carrier called me the day they were to be delivered and asked if she could stop at my house earlier than usual.  She was afraid of driving around in a Postal Truck with a bunch of bees serenading her all day long.  (I told her that it would be fine.)

MFH (My Favorite Husband) and I had made some new concrete pads for the new arrivals and set up fresh, pretty hives for them.

The bees arrived nice and healthy and grouchy.  Who could blame them?  They had been in transit from Georgia to our house in Mississippi for three days.  I would be a bit grouchy, too!

They took well to their new homes.  They have been making fresh comb, honey and lots and lots of baby bees.  It has been a good year for our new bees.

The older bees, well, they couldn’t care less that they have competition.  They have given us quite a bit of honey for this season.  When we came home from vacation a week ago, we had two calls and sold out all of our honey from this season!  I’m happy for the extra money but feeling a little sad all at the same time.  That means that our neighbors probably won’t be getting a jar of honey from us come Christmas.

Tonight, MFH and I went out to the apiary to check on our new bees again.  They have filled up two supers quite well.  They are healthy hives.  We finally placed a queen excluder on these hives tonight and another super on top of that.  I am hoping that they will be ambitious enough to fill that super before Winter sets in.

Being in Mississippi, we can have a honey flow in late October.  They have some time yet to fill that thing up.  We will not pull any honey from those hives until next Spring.  We want them to be good and strong come Spring time.

So, basically, I tucked those new hives in for the Winter tonight.  I will definitely check on them before the cold weather arrives to make sure there is not a lot of empty space in  those new supers.  If they can’t fill those by the end of September, I will remove them and then put them back on in March.  They have enough honey to make it through the Winter as is but they don’t need an attic without any insulation, right!?!