I have had visitors from Texas all week and I have not had time to go to the apiaries. I don’t know what my bees are doing at this time. Need to make enough screened bottom boards so they can replace the solid ones. I hear good things about the colonies that have the screens. They seem to be stronger and more healthy. I have some screened bottom boards on the new swarms that I hived and I like the way they are growing.

I have some brood boxes that need to be replaced, so I am in the process of cleaning (scraping the wax and trash out of the boxes) some more boxes and will probably spend a day changing them out. While I am there, that would be a good time to pull honey for extracting. Taking some empty supers then would be smart too so the bees would still have room to work without deciding to swarm. Normally at this time I would have extracted two times getting ready for my final extraction in October. I leave one super of honey on each colony for winter feed.

There are two thoughts on over wintering. [1] Honey is paying bulk rate of around .80 a pound and you can feed corn syrup for .14 a pound. But since we don’t know what is causing the Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), I feel that maybe the corn syrup (type and amount of Fructose) might have something to do with it. [2] Nature intended for the bees to eat the honey they have processed. That is why the first super of honey they produce should be left. Anyway, that is my reasoning.

Soon, I should be able to tell you plans for building screen bottom boards, changing out the brood boxes, starting the extraction process, and maybe cleaning the apiary grounds, getting ready for winter. However we still have the cotton and some fall honey flows here in NW Florida before I completely shut down for the winter.

Since Blogging is still new to me, maybe my writer son, who is a Missionary to the Deaf in Mérida, Yúcatan, México, www.missionarytalks.com will give me some pointers so you, the reader, won’t get bored. Have a Good Day.