Nov 1st Queen Bee

[BlueBee]

My honeybees are all fed for the winter per Finski's process, but since we're having a couple of mild days (60F/16C) I figured I would try Frameshifts and T Beeks open feeding today just to give the bees something to do since all the flowers are dead. 

The open feeding drew in a cloud of bees, but what really caught my eye was one giant sized bee.  It was a big queen bumble bee!  She was taking part in the feast and filling up for winter hibernation.  I was a little surprised to see a queen bumble bee in Michigan on Nov 1st.  I would have expected her to be hibernating by now.  I think this one is a Bombus Impatiens; pretty common around here.



I tried to rear some Bumbles last spring, but that was a complete failure.  I was tempted for a nanosecond to capture this queen and hibernate her in captivity but then I returned to my senses :-D  I have enough irons in the fire already.