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Fall Management

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riverbee:
A great pdf file with good information on preparing your hives now for upcoming winter months. 

"Fall management is primarily concerned with preparing honey bee colonies for winter. Successful wintering depends largely upon the condition of the colonies in the fall. Prior to the spread of parasitic mites, about 10 percent of colonies were normally lost each year because of poor management, starvation, weak colonies, or other unexplained reasons.

Typical fall management consists of checking colonies for the proper arrangement of hive equipment, proper hive ventilation, adequate food stores, and adequate colony strength once or twice during the fall. Treatments for Varroa mites and tracheal mites should also be applied in the late summer or early fall and then removed from colonies prior to winter. A fall Fumidil-B® treatment for Nosema disease is also recommended."

the article covers:
*HIVE EQUIPMENT PREPARATION FOR WINTER
*MOUSE PROTECTION
*NOSEMA TREATMENT
*BEE POPULATIONS
*HIVE VENTILATION
*WINTER STORES
*VARROA MITE AND TRACHEAL MITE CONTROL

Fall Management MAAREC - University of Delaware

if anyone else has anything to add, links, info, comments, etc., to help the newer beeks get their bees ready this fall, please do so! 
thanks!

i have also attached the file, just click on the paperclip to open it.

tedh:
Riverbee, when I try to open that file my computer starts opening tabs like crazy, last time, it hit 133 tabs before I closed it out.  Ted

riverbee:
thanks ted, wow, doesn't happen to me?  i uploaded the file, so go to my post, and click on the paperclip at the bottom, you should be able to open it without any problems. 

tedh:
Thanks Riverbee!  That answered 2 of my most pressing questions re: going into winter.  I like the mouse guard idea, using the wooden reducer (4 in. open) upside down so dead bees or detritus doesn't plug it up!  Never would have thought of that!  Also I'm glad to hear that a bottom entrance with a top entrance will give adequate ventilation!  I've been reading, thinking, yes, worrying about those two things.  Ted

riverbee:
you are welcome ted, sorry you had trouble the first time around.

i have used various mouse guards, but now just use hardware cloth over the entrance, usually by the time i place entrance reducers on, the mice have found warmer facilities or have croaked from the various means i use to get rid of them, however it is still a great idea to protect our hives from mice, and i have placed hardware cloth over the e/rs.

i leave the e/r's as they are, or leave them off completely. some reverse and use them upside down.  i tend to take swipes through the entrance on the bottom board during winter months with a slim jim..... :D
having a bottom and top entrance.....? my HO, an absolute.  an upper entrance for us in north country, both for ventilation and for bees to exit when the bottom gets clogged up, and it will.  the bees move upward, so the upper entrance really does make sense for them on warmer winter days to exit the hive, and i truly believe in the upper entrance during winter months for ventilation.  my upper entrance is a 3 1/2 " notch cut out of the inner cover.

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