Pushing To Winter With Hives

 For some reason, I'll share, this has been an off year. Both in my enthusiasm about beekeeping, and the amount of honey I expect to extract. Its # 27, and somehow year after year in the past 5 plus, dealing with mites and trying to dial in on how to handle them, wore me out I guess. So I backed off, did the minimal, barely took notes afters years that would fill volumes. Have done no mite counts. Check swarming by Demareeing- even to now - but had only half my 20 hives producing.

I haven't extracted yet, pulled supers are on my truck. But I think there's less than 20- fairly dismal- maybe 30 gallons, a third of whats usual. And- nectar wise- it was for some folks around here an absolute record year. I saw some of that in some hives, but not in all. 

I keep my unused supers in my backyard. I'd say there is a row of 30 or 40 or more. Some years, there are zero- but it's always a measure of what I did not take in. And I am pulling out old foundation- stacks of it- thinking that if I push forward with this, I'll put new foundation in every one, and have an amazing year.

Organized, and not otherwise employed, I can do I am sure 40 to 50 hives. A lot of work, but if it was all I did, it might be pretty great. Fun, if it went well.

Now we are moving into winter. I'm not sure there will even be a Knotweed crop- I see it in some hives, but not many. So what I have, really might be it. 

However- and this is anecdotal at this point- I feel I am seeing an huge drop in mite loads from years before. I treated with Formic Pro in 90% of my hives on June 1, as planned and determined by a study of Randy Oliver's spreadsheet- and with a second FP treatment now- I see mites, but not thousands like I did with OAV last year.

Maybe that's timing, and FP. But I would add- the climate changes here might also have had their impacts. Apples for example- I have  well established trees- have very little disease- as is usually typical. Other garden plants- the same. Like the odd weather caught the pests off guard. Maybe the mites too? Seems unlikely- but it's weird I am not seeing what I have seen every year for 5 or 10. 

Which likely is more a measure of not looking closely- not doing OAV (which tells you in a day your mite load), not doing sugar/alcohol rolls. Still- FP should drop a ton.

Also- anecdotally- I don't see crawling, dying bees in the lawn. My bees are up high- on a roof- and those that can't make it drop down. I walk barefoot- I get stung. Look close- you see crawling bees. This year- for the first time in ages- none.

I have no idea if anything I'm seeing means anything. I plan on a full inspection of every hive this weekend, and going through each with an OAV blast for a mite count. Then, finish out with a FP treatment for those that missed it ( I wasn't thorough), 

Something seems different?