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Date: October 28, 2008 Time: 2:00 PM Temp: 47' Weather: Cold, Dry, and Windy
So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye...the 2008 beekeeping season is done. Today I closed up the hives and did a final check in the bees. Nothing much to report as the temperature was only in the 40's. I didn't even use a veil. Although I nailed in the mouse guards, I would recommend screwing them in. I was only challenged by a bee or two which promptly went back inside after not finding me too interesting. There was plenty of activity inside the hives and they seem like they have plenty of honey stored up for the upcoming winter.
I removed the top feeders, added the mouse guards, tilted the hives forward with a few pieces of scrap wood, spaced the top cover for ventilation, and closed up the screened bottom board.
Thanks to all of you who have written me e-mail or have simply checked out the website. I have some very cool ideas for next year and promise to keep the website interesting and informative in the months to come.
In the mean time, I'll be attending and working to build up our local beekeeping club and look forward to meeting all of the local beekeepers who have contacted me.
Here in Northern Kentucky the weather has definitely turned towards winter. The leaves have been changing, the grass has stopped growing, and while deer hunting near my hives last week, I noticed minimal activity coming from the hives. The temperatures here have been in the 60'-40's range, but tonight is expected to be the first frost of the season.
Tomorrow, I'll head out to the hives for one last seasonal visit. I need to remove the top feeders, tilt the hives a little more, install mouse guards, remove the ApiGaurd, and say good bye to the 2008 beekeeping season.
This afternoon I went to the hives to install the second round of Apigaurd treatment in both hives. Apigaurd is used to kill off the Varroa mites that have infested my hives. I picked up a few leaves of tobacco from the field and added it to my smoker...mmmmm good. It's said that tobacco smoke is also good for treating Varroa. Both Genesis and Exodus were pretty quite. I checked the weight of both hives and both seem to have a good amount stored up for the winter. I'm terrible as estimating weight, so I'll just say 50lbs? Here's a video of Exodus. (Notice how slow the bees were moving)
I removed the empty supers that were on top of each hive and fed the bees a winter syrup mixture. The recipe is 2.5 qts water and 10 lbs of sugar. Each hive got about 1.5 gallons.
On top of Exodus, underneath the empty super that the bees had been cleaning up, I found dozens of dead bees, cut in half. Strange...I suppose they were battling robbing yellow jackets.
I also saw a field mouse in the area of my hives. So, sometime very soon I'll be installing the mouse guards on each hive.
In 2008 I became a first-year beekeeper here in Northern Kentucky. I'm also the producer and host of "The Beekeeping Podcast", a podcast for beginner beekeepers. You can subscribe to the podcast using the link below.