Here is the new post as promised, but not as timely as I thought. We had to go back to Texas within a 100 miles from the last trip to bury my step dad. We just got back a week ago .

Before we left, we had a visit from the County Code Enforcement Officer saying that we needed to empty all the buckets of water to keep the mosquitoes down. Also the back yard had plant growth over 12″ tall. Our lawn mower went down, so I got the weed eater out and couldn’t start it as the trigger cable was frozen. I took it to the local small engine repair shop and waited over a week and they called me to say that the carburetor was shot and needed a new one. I told them to order one and fix the machine.  Then we left a week after that to go to Texas. We were gone 2 1/2 weeks.

We waited a week after we got back and then called the engine repair shop and was told that the carburetor was still on order. A week later I was told that after they put the weed eater back together that there were more things wrong and it would cost me more. Forget that! I went and rented a weed eater and proceeded to cut down the weeds.

Now what does this have to do with beekeeping? One) You have to be able to see the hives to get to them. Two) You have to have a path to get to them. Three) The bee inspector needed room around the hives  to be able to work the bee boxes to inspect them.

My Bees passed inspection, now I have to get rid of some junky boxes and frames out of the front yard. I was told to get rid of my wooden ware in the back yard, but most of the wooded ware is good stuff. I will get it stacked up and painted as soon as possible and maybe the Code Inspector will cut me some slack as I don’t have anywhere else to put it.

It has been over five years since I had bees at any of my apiaries and I probably have lost to privilege of using them by now.

By the way, I am down to two nucs and one full colony now. I lost one of my full colonies while I was in Texas. Hive beetles slimed  it real good or bad as the case may be.

I will probably split the two nucs soon and maybe have to feed them if they don’t get enough nectar for overwintering.

I still have not gotten information from my son as to how to move the photos from my Android to my computer yet, so pictures are not available at this time.

Be sure that you have supers on your colonies so they can collect the Fall honey. I leave one full Illinois (medium) super on and then put an empty on top of that in case they find more nectar before they completely shut down for the winter.

Get ready to build boxes, frames, read, and watch videos during the next four months. Because Spring will be here before you know it and you will not have time to do that and keep up at the same time.