Today’s photo is a picture of the hive entrance to my top bar hive Saturn. You can see how the bees have blocked off part of the entrance with propolis. They often do this if the bees decide they don’t need as much room during the winter. The smaller entrance protects the hive from wind and helps keep potential intruders out.

In the summer, the bees coat every nook and cranny with propolis, gluing the hive and frames tight with propolis seals. Propolis can be hard on beekeepers, but is antimicrobial and helps protect the hive from disease, wind, and small invaders.

As you can see in the below picture of the full hive, we’ve had some snow lately, roughly 9 inches total this week (which is unusual for us). The sun has melted the snow on part of the hive. I tried to scrape off the rest but the ice was frozen solid, so it will have to stay for another day at least.

May you prosper and find honey.