Bee Careful

Spent a bunch of time with my bees over the last few days.  This is the season to change over from encouraging them to give me honey to encouraging them to do what is necessary to survive the winter. It's a very elegant balance of tasks they perform, all I do is make the environment as friendly for them to work in as possible.  (After all, they are very good at being bees)  There are some basic checks to make, like how much the hives weigh, to ensure they are storing the large amount of supplies they'll need to make it through the winter drought.  I also move their stores around to make sure all of their food is in the top of their hive, they eat "up" as the winter progresses.  Finally, I make the environment healthy for the queen to continue laying eggs so that there is as big a population of bees as possible before the real cold weather hits.  The more bees in the hive the more heat they produce.  Bees value their young, in fact, realize their young ensure their own survival.  A lot to be learned.....