Bee Chronicles

6 Nov 2018

It is now 22 Oct. The thought of a frost happened last night. The most delicate plants got nipped. I think flowering is over. There have been a few asters hanging on but not much else.

Watch for the witch hazel. It will bloom after 15 November. A beautiful white to very light yellow. A bush along the creeks.

It is never too late to treat for mites. Some treatments recommend doing it after all brooding is over so you can catch all the mites outside of the cells.

Treat for tracheal mites. You don’t hear much about this, but they are still a concern. Menthol crystals or grease patties are an affective treatment. In the winter I like the menthol crystals. When the bees are brooding I like grease patties. The tracheal mites enter the new bee when it is 4 days old. Grease patties will hide the scent of the young bee. In the winter with older bees you want them to breathe the menthol and kill the mites that have already invaded their breathing tubes.

The important thing is to preserve large bee colonies. Level your populations so that there will be enough bees in the cluster to keep the queens alive all winter.

You can switch to 2:1 syrup. It is getting too cool to draw wax. Now you just want to get the carbohydrate stored in the hive as honey. Keep feeding at least until December. If it stays warm Dec. Jan. Feb. the bees will need more food than if it gets cool and they cluster up for the winter. Some years I have fed every month of the winter.

You don’t need to feed pollen patties because the bees won’t eat it unless they have brood. If you do have a queen who is still laying take advantage of it and feed that hive a little pollen to keep the queen laying. I have had queens lay until late January. When it finally got cold they shut down. Then 3 weeks later (late Feb.) they started up again with the early warm spring. This does not adversely affect the colony.

WATCH OUT FOR BEARS They are hungry and getting ready to hibernate.

Winter is the time to repair all your wood work. Get new frames ready for spring rotation. On warm days paint your boxes again.