Sparrows

[GRIZZLY]

The bees have been killing off the drones this week.This has resulted in a pile of dead drones on the ground in front of the hives. Mum and Dad sparrows have discovered this and today have been feeding them to their latest offspring.They don't touch the live bees and give them a wide berth. :D :D

[Trog]

I had a colony which was killing off the drones a bit early (about a month ago) and thought it was maybe because the weather was so cold it felt like autumn. However, on inspecting the colony a couple of days later I found they were all starving. At the beginning of July they were well-provisioned and had half filled a super. The July weather was so awful, they'd eaten the lot, plus everything in the brood nest. I fed them and 4 other lots and they and the others (who'd also stopped producing brood due to shortage of stores) are all producing a bit of drone brood again along with masses of worker brood. Although they'd been able to fly some days in July, clearly the flowers were too drookit to produce anything useful for them. My bees usually have drones around well into October. One lot even managed to swarm in September and raise a replacement queen!

[HensandBees]

you were lucky to catch them... I rescued less than a cup full of bees and the queen from a friends colony which we are now trying to build back up before winter the weekend before he thought there was plenty of stores . its the third summer in a row with no honey .........they need so much stores in the summer to get through a rainy patch

[GRIZZLY]

Huge amount of pollen coming in plus our district is heaving with acres of Rosebay Willowherb and heather.Still havent sourced the Himalayan Balsam which they have been working for over a week now.

[Trog]

We lost that September swarm - just went up and away as we watched! Usually they cluster fairly nearby but this lot just went! They should have survived, though, as there are lots of feral colonies here that do. Sometimes September on Mull is better than July and August put together but this summer's been the worst I've known.