Hi - I'm from Cape Cod, Massachusetts. I'm a gardener who's always been interested in beekeeping but I've never done it. There are beekeepers around the area though I don't know them. This past summer I had a lot more flowers and veggies than usual growing- a lot of sunflowers. Honeybees from someone's hives were all over them, and I enjoyed watching them.
I just noticed today that some honeybees have set up a hive in a stack of upturned landscape barrels near my toolshed. They are definitely honeybees- the same kind that were around all summer. It's a warm Thanksgiving day today, and they're busy flying in and out of the drainage holes in the bottom of the barrels.
I want to make sure they'll be safe there over the winter. Is there anything I should do for them? I do not want to disturb them going into winter.
My idea is to help them get through the winter, and get to know some local beekeepers who can transfer them into a hive for me in the spring. I could maybe make a deal whereby the experienced beekeeper could tend my hive next year and teach me, in exchange for the honey.
maybe the cosmos brought the bees in.
