In September I did a varroa mite count, and on advice of other beekeepers, I decided to treat the hive for mites. The treatment I used consisted of a couple of chemical strips laid in between my hive bodies, and left for 7 days, them removed. I also treated for a virus called Nosema, and that treatment was a powder mixed in with the sugar syrup mix that the bees drink from a feeder. After all treatments were complete, I gave them back a super of honey that I had removed before treating them, and they should spend these last days before winter moving that honey out of the comb, and bringing it back down into the hive body, to eat this winter.
My goal today was to take one good last look at the strength of the colony, and see exactly what they had in the frames before closing them up for the winter, and doing any moving of frames that might need to be done to help them out. The other thing I needed to do was switch out one of my deep hive boxes for another one that had a hole drilled in the top front, for a higher entrance. It will help them this winter with extra ventilation, and give them an escape if the snow is deep around the bottom entrance.The top photo shows the box with the hole (it has a piece of tape over it) on the left. I needed to move all the frames (and bees) from the box on the hive over to that one, and move that one back to the top spot on the hive.
This photo shows a frame full of capped honey.
My
discoveries were these: My bee colony on the whole seem extremely
strong. Both deep boxes had a lot of bees on the majority of frames, so
out of 20 frames total, there were a large amount of bees on 15, and a
smaller groups of bees on the other 5, One of the hive bodies had
mostly honey in it, with some pollen and nectar as well. The other had a
mix of brood, pollen and honey.
We made the switch into the new box, and put the box with brood and honey on the bottom, put the box with mostly honey on top of it, and then added a smaller size super with 2-3 frames of honey that they will continue to work on, bringing it down into the lower box to eat this winter.
The end result of the beehive shuffle
I did not harvest any honey this fall, being my first year with the hive, I want them to have plenty of their own food to keep them healthy through the winter, and it looks like they do! Many beekeepers feed their bees during winter and spring, and that works fine, but it's always the best option if they can eat honey instead of sugar, so the more honey they have the better.
I am really happy with the strength of my bees and feel hopeful that they should come through the winter with no problems!
