It's pretty quiet out there.

Inspections of the hives the last two weekends have shown things are winding down for the approaching winter. Although the bees are still foraging and bringing in pollen, there's a marked decrease in new bees and honey storage.

This frame from Rocky shows honey storage around the edges with brood in the center. When I pulled out the center frame of the bottom super, I saw the queen for the first time! However, not wanting to take a chance on her fleeing the hive, I didn't pause to take a photo — just slipped the frame right back into place.

Apollo looks healthy, but there is still very little activity in the third super, so I plan on removing it soon. Crowding the bees into two supers will help them stay warmer in cold weather.


This photo shows some bees getting the old brush-off. Brushing is a gentle way to scoot them out of the way when replacing the inner and out covers.

Very few signs of pests — only a few hive beetles in the traps and a couple of wax moth webs on the sticky boards. These bees can take care of themselves!

Sometime in the next few weeks I'll start feeding the bees again since their stores of honey seem pretty small. I'm still on the fence about whether to medicate for mites, so I'll be researching a little more about that before making a decision.