Our three hives under the leadership of their queens Suiko, Olive Isabella, and Tutwo, are foraging like the bee-gee-bees and we are filling the pollen feeders and sugar water feeders daily and sometimes twice daily – go girls go. We have gone through nearly 15 pounds of synthetic pollen in less than a month which is incredible! Our honeybees aren’t the only folks interested in the pollen however as the carpenter bees also want it. There are no altercations in the feeders themselves however when the carpenter bees approach a hive, it is a horse of a different color. The carpenter bees, for whatever reason, only approach Tutwo’s hive (we have made the assumption that is because her’s is the least well-established of our three) and are met with an immediate assault force. We have actually watched a large number of bees jump on an intruder that landed on their entrance and within seconds completely surround that carpenter and begin heating it up until it dies! There are maybe 15 dead carpenters beneath Tutwo’s hive and what you see here are three carpenters being attacked where the biggest concentration of bees is – two hanging off the bottom of the hive entrance and one higher up in the middle.
The carpenter bees are too big to enter, and the girls know exactly how to defend themselves, but it is taking energy and time away from foraging. We got in touch with our bee mentor, Roy, and at his suggestion we moved the pollen feeders further away and EVERYONE found them within 10 minutes! We are pleased that life in Tutwo’s world seems to have returned to normal – yea!
