10/30/2024
Tonight we finished getting our 12 hives ready for winter! After we smoked the hive to calm the bees, we opened up to the top deep hive box and placed 5 VarroxSan oxalic acid strips in higher traffic areas within the box.
We want thousands of tiny bee feet to walk over those strips, as they'll treat for the parasitic Varroa mites that may be on the bees, and help prevent any mite infestation as the bees go into their most vulnerable season of the year.
Afterwards, we placed what's known as a "quilt box" to help capture moisture emitted from the bees' respiratory processes. Otherwise, that moisture might drip back onto them during the colder months (and moisture kills more bees than starvation) so this will help keep them cozy and dry ☺️
We'll keep checking in on them periodically, but otherwise, good luck bees! We've fed them with sugar syrup to the proper box weights and done all the prep work we can to give them the best winter chances ❄️
