Here Comes the Cold

We had our first snow a couple of weeks ago. 

I hope the girls are staying warm! I added an empty super on top of each hive and filled them with cedar shavings to provide extra insulation and ventilation. I used those last year and both hives made it through the winter. We'll see if I get lucky again. 

The Apivar strips had been in for 6 weeks so it was time to take them out. I hated to open the hives in the cold (about 40) but I didn't want to leave them in any longer than I had to.

It was kind of fun to suit up one last time and fire up the smoker but the bees were definitely not happy about it. No surprise there. I will remember this next year and time the mite counts and treatments better. Live and learn!

Ready for Winter??

A beautiful Indian summer has come to an end. We had a gorgeous October with mid-afternoon temps getting up to the 60s and no hard frosts until just last week.

See how low the angle of the sun is getting? Well, take my word for it... This is facing south.

The nice weather made it possible to feed the bees sugar syrup to boost up their food stores. They were bringing on pollen all month long too. I don't think they're quite as heavy as they were last year, but the the top boxes are full of honey. I've been working hard on getting them healthy too. They have Apivar strips in right now because the mite counts were still high after the Formic strips back in September. I think the night time temps were too low for the Formic to work. Fortunately, the last sugar shake I did showed a dramatic drop in the mite load (0.5/100) when I was about 2-3 weeks in to the 6-week treatment period for the Apivar. That'll be done the end of November and then the strips come out. The girls will be on their own until spring!

 Cam, Toby and Mom helped me sell the last of the honey at garden club last month. I can't believe how fast 300lbs of honey can disappear! There's a little bit of comb honey and that is it.