More South Texans needed

[Wandering Man]

But not too far South.

As I read about others' preparations for the Winter, I'm wondering what I should be doing, and when.  We still have temperatures with highs ranging from the upper 80's to the lower 90's and lows in the lower 70's.

The girls are still bringing lots of pollen, and I'm not sure about nectar.  Neither of my two hives ever drew out comb in the medium supers.  Instead, they seem to be using the wax foundation as a source to supplement whatever wax needs they have in the two deeps.

I think all of the drones have been evicted.

I have one hive with only one or two mites dropping into the bottom board, and one hive with about 12 a day dropping, even after 5 weekly OAV treatments.

There are some SHB in the hive, but not many.

I still see a lot of bees every afternoon doing orientation flights.

I'm not sure whether or not to add sugar water or leave them alone.  There are several frames of capped honey in the deeps for both hives.

Should I go ahead and remove the medium supers for the winter, or leave them on?

Is there a need down here to add anything to combat any unknown diseases, like foulbrood or chalkbrood? 

I can see what folks are doing a couple of hours south, and a couple of hours north, but I'm not quite sure which to follow.  It gets colder sooner and stays colder longer up north, and vice versa south.

Maybe I'm just over thinking all of this.

-WM

[Nugget Shooter]

I am in Central AZ and our temps are same as yours right now, but I think you get colder in winter? I am in my first year and locals say not to expect the bees to stop except on very cold days which we have very few of all winter and we always have something blooming in the Sonoran Desert year round. I feed only during dearth...

[tecumseh]

In places like much of Texas you can peek into hives almost any month of the year.  You need not wrap a hive although a entrance reduce may be of some benefit.  At this time of year I pay a lot of attention (in terms of individual hives) to their weight.  You can of course drag along a scale and reduce the question to some quantity or simply tip the hive (front and back) and get some relative weight of the hive (ie is it feather light or heavy like a bag of concrete).  If light you need to feed and if heavy most time you simply leave these alone.  Tipping can (after just a bit of practice) also allow you to feel if the hive is top heavy and bottom light.... in which case normally (and no matter what the time of year) I reverse box (ie rotate bees, feed and brood down to the bottom board and anything empty on top or at least above the brood nest).