Good question, Newbee. Very timely.
The basics, IMO, for hive inspections are assessing 1. Queen rightness 2. Food stores 3. Colony health 4. Colony strength.
Is the queen still laying in a good pattern? Are the larvae being feed plenty of royal jelly? The presence of Royal Jelly is evidence of adequate nectar/pollen available. I wouldn't worry about drones in the colony. Drones are a good sign. The workers will kick them out when the time is right. Early in my beekeeping adventure I observed a colony with a lot of drones in November. I was scratching my head but I learned the doomed colony had gone queenless and a laying worker stepped up to fulfill the role.
Are there adequate food stores going into winter? In this part of the country we plan on 60# of honey for each colony. If they look light, I would start feeding them now, 2:1 sugar syrup. That's 4 cups of water to 1-4# bag of sugar or 8# of sugar to 4# of water.
Have you tested and treated for mites? Mites are the big vector of disease and pathogens, especially this time of year. Colony numbers decline but mite counts continue to climb. To learn more about mites and testing go to
www.honeybeehealthcoalition.orgIn the Aug. 2020 issue of Bee Culture Magazine, Meredith Swett Walker wrote an article entitled,
Colony Size Drives Honey Bees' Overwinter Survival. Walker writes. "The best predictors of overwinter survival were colony weight and the number of worker bees in October..." She found that colonies weighing 66 pounds (or about 30 kg) had a winter survival rate around 94 %.
Colonies weighing around 44# (or 20kg) had a low survival rate. The recommendations for over winter survival, in the article, are good quality queens, varroa management, and track colony weight. If they are underweight, supplement with pollen and sugar syrup to boost worker numbers. She concludes with colonies going into winter that are small can be combined to boost the odds of overwinter survival.
I hope this helps.
