Farewell to the Drones

It was September 6th when I first noticed the drones being forced from the hives; some of them just pushed out, some at the entrance with workers on their backs pecking at them, others in tussles with (much smaller) workers, rolling off the landing onto the ground like scrapping teenagers. I sat mesmorized by this ritual which I had only read about until now; part brutal, part beautiful, all fascinating. (the male drones must be fed by the female workers so get "kicked out" each autumn to conserve food stores for the winter) "How can she sit and stare at that hive for so long?", I'm sure my neighbors think. Yesterday I went to "feed" them as everyone else had already been feeding the sweet concoction of sugar water and herbs for weeks. I was lead to include eucalyptus in the batch and later read that menthol is good to treat tracheal mites....Thank You, Universe. The colonies are much smaller now with the drones pretty much gone and the "summer bees" dying off. The Woodstock hive (a top bar hive from Sam Comfort) had a few ants wandering on the top and when I opened the end the last bar had a small virgin yellow comb drawn which was empty. I did not disturb the rest of the hive as they had propolized the bars for winter. I left them their tea in the empty end, covered by a roof of unused top bars. When I left for the day they were buzzing with delight. I hope that they like it! The 1st hive, now the "Greeting Garden Hive" as it is in the middle of the circle garden made from my new driveway seems to be OK. There was no where to feed the bees except place the feeder inside the hive, which is what I did. The "Barn Hive", my only Langstroth hive, seems to have the most robust colony. I slid the feeder into the entrance, no fuss, no muss. I'm experimenting with different styles of hives and, so far, I do like the primitive beauty of the top bar hive. I'll go back in 5 days to check them and mouse proof the hives. (which should have already been done...) I've been a little slow this year. It's been a year of big changes for both the bees and me and the bees have become my "family", of sorts. My human family moved to Texas, my Aunt Margaret died and now I am possibly going to lose my job for refusing the H1N1 flu vaccine. Well, if the bees could make it after losing their mother hive by being shaken into a box which ended up in my yard, I guess I can make it, too.