This being my first year, I am curious what the schecule for fall activities is.
The amount of brood in both my hives is way down, so I am assuming the queen is tapering off. The gals are packing everything full of pollen. I have 2 full brood boxes and 1 super on each hive.
And lots of bees <G>. Should I be reducing hive space now that it is getting cooler?
Fall chores?
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Wally
FALL CHORES
Well,
On this end, I have put the miticide and menthol in, and taken off the boxes that had nothing in them.
While doing so, I estimated the weight by lifting the hive, or in one case, attempting to, and checked the brood pattern for queen condition. Since both were easily over fifty pounds, I felt they were ready for winter without feeding. Next, I will remove the mite strips after 6 weeks, and hope for the best. The winter will be used to clean bad frames and wax new ones for the spring. That's about it here.
I wish you and everyone luck on overwintering.
Wally
On this end, I have put the miticide and menthol in, and taken off the boxes that had nothing in them.
While doing so, I estimated the weight by lifting the hive, or in one case, attempting to, and checked the brood pattern for queen condition. Since both were easily over fifty pounds, I felt they were ready for winter without feeding. Next, I will remove the mite strips after 6 weeks, and hope for the best. The winter will be used to clean bad frames and wax new ones for the spring. That's about it here.
I wish you and everyone luck on overwintering.
Wally
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Kurt Bower
- Guard bee
- Posts: 692
- Joined: Fri Apr 02, 2004 2:04 pm
- Location: Julian, NC
- Contact:
Hi Bruce!
Sounds like you are in a pretty good position for the winter!
As long as you have a viable queen going into the winter and she is still laying you should be OK. A lot of bees is a good thing for cluster size.
You may still want to feed one last time just to get the queen to lay some new eggs. After all, the bees going into the fall/winter have to make it all the way to spring. If too many of your bees are older, they may not survive the entire winter, thus reducing the colonies chances for survival.
It is a quandry as what to do with so much space. Most beekeepers do not overwinter with 2 deeps and a super. Do you have the ability to reduce hive space and if so how would you go about it?
I have been reucing mine if possible. I am running 3 mediums and simply combine and remove if the colony obviously can not handle the room.
Have you already checked and treated for mites?
Sounds like you are in a pretty good position for the winter!
As long as you have a viable queen going into the winter and she is still laying you should be OK. A lot of bees is a good thing for cluster size.
You may still want to feed one last time just to get the queen to lay some new eggs. After all, the bees going into the fall/winter have to make it all the way to spring. If too many of your bees are older, they may not survive the entire winter, thus reducing the colonies chances for survival.
It is a quandry as what to do with so much space. Most beekeepers do not overwinter with 2 deeps and a super. Do you have the ability to reduce hive space and if so how would you go about it?
I have been reucing mine if possible. I am running 3 mediums and simply combine and remove if the colony obviously can not handle the room.
Have you already checked and treated for mites?