Wasp Season — Guard Bees on Duty 🚧🐝 

⚔️ Trouble at the Gate
As summer rolled on, we started hearing reports from other beekeepers: wasps were on the prowl. Hungry and opportunistic, wasps will often raid hives late in the season, looking for easy access to honey or even bee brood.

We respect wasps — they’re pollinators too, and part of the natural balance — but we didn’t want them getting the upper hand at our hive.

🔧 A Simple Solution
Instead of setting traps or taking action that might harm the wasps, we went for a gentle, clever fix: an entrance reducer.

By shrinking the hive entrance down to just one bee space, the guard bees suddenly had far less ground to cover. Safety in numbers! Now, every wasp trying its luck would meet a wall of determined guards, ready to block the way.

💡 Did you know?
Bees have special guard bees who station themselves at the hive entrance. Their job is to smell every bee coming in. If it smells of “home,” they’re let through. If not… it’s challenged. Wasps, robbing bees, and intruders often find themselves wrestled or chased away.

✨ Success!
During the height of wasp season, we saw the occasional wasp buzzing around the hive, testing its luck. But not once did we see a wasp make it inside. The bees held the line brilliantly — proof that sometimes the simplest solutions really are the best.

Great work, guard bees. 🛡️🐝