My state bee inspector called to see if we could look at my bees last week. I wasn’t prepared for him, but this is the best way to go. We inspected my active yards and found no diseases and didn’t visually see any Varroa mites. That isn’t to say I don’t have any, just that we didn’t find any on the preliminary search. We did find, however, plenty of Small Hive Beetles (SHB). He suggested that I get busy and make those screened bottom boards and get some beetle traps into the hives.

My bees looked good, but if I could lower the concentration of SHB, then the bees might be strong enough to overwinter easier. I ‘will not have to worry about going miles and miles to feed this Winter, if I need to. I ended up with only with 8 colonies. So sometime this fall, I will bring all the hives to one apiary to oversee the wintering process. This will be a good time to clean boxes and build the screened bottom boards and make some new top covers.

Look for my next post. I will be making some announcements of upcoming workshops and state meetings. Until then, keep your veil close, the smoker lit, and your hive tool sharp.