Mid-winter here in Mpumalanga and the aloes are keeping every colony ticking over

A view from the Southern Hemisphere while you northerners melt: it's July, our winter, and my scutellata colonies on the Highveld edge are flying every mild midday because the winter aloes are in full bloom. Aloe greatheadii var. davyana mostly — hillsides of orange spikes, and the bees hammer them for both nectar and a surprising amount of cream-coloured pollen. Eleven winters keeping here and this flow is why our 'winter management' looks nothing like Europe's. Colonies keep small brood patches going right through, stores barely drop, and some years I pull a small dark aloe crop in August. I still check weight monthly by hefting and keep entrances small — winter is also robbing and honey badger season — but there's no true broodless dead period like you get up north. Anyone else on a winter flow right now? Curious about the Aussies and Argentines.