Ah, November

What could be more typical than our first day of November? The last day of October was sunny and balmy. Today we woke to grey skies, and walked out the door to chilling cold and light rain, soon changing  to snow. How could the weather know that the calendar had flipped over to November?
But here it is, ready or not, winter is on its way.

Yesterday our bees were buzzing around the jar of sugar water that Bob supplied to them each day in October while the weather was still mild but the flowers had faded. It is an extra supplement to help them survive the winter. Hopefully they will have made sufficient honey to feed their queen and themselves during the cold, flowerless months ahead. The workers exiled the drones last month. They had passed their usefulness to the colony and only the bees who produced food and heat to sustain the entire colony through the winter would remain to keep the queen alive and nourish themselves so as to be able to begin the cycle anew next spring.

What a marvel are these little creatures! They supply the pollen needed for 60% of our food supply. And, to the consternation of many, they are disappearing from our earth. Their loss could be more serious to our survival than the problems we are facing with oil and other natural resources.

Every time I see the bees working themselves to death (literally) I sigh, "Thank you, little bees, for all of your hard work to help create the produce that will keep us surviving long after your three weeks of life are finished."

So November is upon us. The flowers are gone to seed and the bees have secluded themselves in their hive. I will miss them....their buzzing and flying from their home to distant flowers, returning with pollen and nectar, to be relieved of both by the hive workers and instantly flying off once again to gather the nectar, spreading the pollen from flower to flower, and by their flights, keeping all of us alive.