Break in the rain

It looks like we may have a break in the rain, the girls in my hives were venturing out this morning. I have to go in this afternoon if it is not raining to pull the drone frame. If I do not, there will be too many drones and a substantial increase in the mite count. Drone frames work well when you can get to them. I will need to feed the Top Bar hive if it keeps raining too. They have too much work to do setting up the hive and probably do not have enough honey made to keep going.

Funny how life works - I am now on Apis homeopathy- derived from honeybee- so it looks like my body knew it needed the bees to heal. Wonder if this will make me seem more like a bee to them?

I have been strawberry picking and I thank the bees for pollination the berry plants. Without the pollinators, our diets would be bleak. There would be no peas or beans, apples or peaches, grapes (no wine?), carrots, squashes, COFFEE (oh, no!), citrus fruits, broccoli, cabbage, mustard, etc. Bless the bees!

I would imagine commercial beekeepers have had good honey harvests already. There are 2 honey flows - spring and fall. I get confused still about if I should establish my bees from the winter, then honey super for their winter use or put on a super to take and then give them a super for winter stores? What if there is not a good fall bloom and they struggle making enough? I know I can feed them late winter but it is not the same as them having enough honey. Some commercial beekeepers take all the honey and don't try to keep them alive over the winter. I imagine this will not happen as much with the cost of bees increasing with CCD.

Anyway, it is one of the dilemmas I have that everyone has a different opinion about it so I will have to find my way with experience.