Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Autumn does not arrive all at once in our woods. You notice it gradually: the light changes, the days grow shorter, mornings become cooler, and the green of summer slowly gives way to the warmer colours of the season.
\nThe change is gradual in the apiaries too. Bees continue to fly during the most favourable hours of the day and search for whatever the surrounding landscape can still provide, but the colony no longer moves at the same pace as it did in summer. The main flowering periods are behind us, available resources are becoming scarcer, and every mild day becomes an opportunity to make the most of before the cold weather arrives.
\nIn the end, the woods and the hive follow the same seasonal rhythm.<\/p>\n
During spring and summer, the landscape can change quickly as one flowering period gives way to another. Autumn is different: the transition is slower and less obvious, but no less important.
\nIn the woods of the Alta Val di Vara, the tree canopies begin to lose the uniform green of the warmer months, the undergrowth changes appearance and the hours of daylight decrease. For bees, this mainly means that nectar and pollen are available in very different quantities compared with the productive season.
\nNot everything comes to an abrupt stop, however. As long as temperatures allow, forager bees continue to leave the hive and search for the last available resources. Some late-flowering plants can still provide nectar and pollen, while ivy, where present, is one of the characteristic resources of early autumn.
\nThe landscape therefore continues to provide something, but in quantities and with a degree of continuity that are much more variable than during the previous months.
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The colony population begins to decrease from its summer peak, brood rearing slows down and foraging activity becomes less intense. Bees spend more and more time inside the hive, particularly on cold or rainy days, returning to flight when sunshine and temperatures once again make it possible.
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This does not mean that the hive is inactive. On the contrary, the colony continues to consume, move and organise its resources, gradually preparing for the time of year when it will depend increasingly on the stores accumulated during the previous months.
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Autumn makes it particularly clear that honey, before being a product harvested by the beekeeper, is an essential reserve for the life of the bees.<\/p>\n
One of the most characteristic sights at this time of year is the apiary on a clear autumn day. In the morning there may be almost no activity at all. Then the sun warms the hives and, almost suddenly, movement returns around the entrances.
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These windows of activity become increasingly short. Bees make the most of the central hours of the day to search for the last available resources, collect water and carry out the activities that can still take place outside the hive.
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Then a colder day, a few days of rain or a further drop in temperature can be enough to change the appearance of the apiary once again.
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At this time of year, the difference between one day and the next can be far more noticeable than it is in the middle of summer.<\/p>\n
For us, autumn is also one of the times of year when the connection between the hives and the place where they stand becomes particularly evident.
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Our bees do not live separately from the landscape. What happens in the woods, meadows and along the edges of country roads is constantly reflected in the life of the colony. The presence or absence of a flowering plant, an unusually mild week or a prolonged period of rain can change what happens at the entrance to the hive within just a few days.
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This is one of the reasons why observing an apiary inevitably means observing the surrounding landscape as well.
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In spring, our attention turns to new blossoms. In summer, we follow the heat and the progress of the honey flows. In autumn, instead, we begin to take stock of what remains: the last favourable days, the resources that are still available and the gradual approach of winter.<\/p>\n
It is a period of transition in which the woods slow down and, with them, the life of the hive changes too. Bees continue to fly whenever conditions allow, make use of what the landscape can still provide and gradually prepare for the months when activity outside the hive will become increasingly limited.
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In the apiary, this transition does not happen on any particular day. You notice it in the later departures in the morning, in the silence of colder days, and in the last foragers returning in the afternoon sunshine.
<\/p>\n
And perhaps this is one of the most interesting aspects of beekeeping: by following the bees, you inevitably learn to observe the seasons much more closely.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Con l\u2019autunno il bosco cambia colore e anche negli apiari il ritmo rallenta. Le api sfruttano le ultime giornate miti e le risorse ancora disponibili prima dell\u2019inverno.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1856,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[71,76,75,77,78,64],"class_list":["post-1855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-territorio","tag-api","tag-apiario","tag-autunno","tag-bosco","tag-fioriture-autunnali","tag-territorio"],"yoast_head":"\n