Bob Billson wrote:
>
> How do I know when the honey season is over?
 
> I don't plan on taking any of the Fall honey and I do want to treat for
> the mites in time to be effective.  Any newbie advice? :-)
 
I use to wait and take off my honey in the fall. I got enough honey for
my needs and I had some winter loss. I read George Imire's "pink pages",
a newsletter of the Maryland State Beekeepers, who reccommends taking
the supers off after the main honey flow- which depends on your
location. I consider it to be the end of the clover season in Maine,
which means I took my supers off last week- the first week in August. It
is earlier the further south you go. I did the same last year and have
harvested more honey per hive this year than ever before. I will still
get fall honey, as I did last year, by "over-supering". I have an extra
inner cover and put it on the brood box and then put the extracted
supers over it and then the next inner hive cover then fiber board and
outer cover. The bees will clean out and move the extracted-wet super
honey down, and then lay in the fall honey.
I will pull the supers in September and treat with Apistan, crisco and
TM.
The bees will overwinter on spring and summer honey, which here is a
light honey which means little particulate matter and it will probably
not crystalize.( I ran a little experiment and extracted a few frames of
that honey last year from the brood box. It still has not crystalized
while the fall honey was solid by December..) Fall honey, especially
aster, will lead to dystentary and poor overwintering.
Many disagree with George and keep their supers on until the last drop
of nectar can be got. It seems counter to logic, to pull the supers
early, and not let the bees have the fall honey but keep it for
yourself, but my bees have never been healthier or as productive. I did
not lose a hive last winter and only one, the winter before, when many
lost everything here in Maine.
Bill Truesdell
Bath, ME