With the summer on its way out, the days are now cooler. And soon enough the bees will need to overwinter their hive to survive. Its been a tough year for these bees. Dealing with small hive beetles have been the biggest pests so far. And my second split did not survive so I am now with one beehive. I have taken some precautions for the beetles by adding lots of salt around the hives. This will keep them from completing their life cycle and will hopefully keep the pest population down.
Taking care of these bees has taught me alot, and the next hive location will be better suited for these honey bees.
I start off the video by suiting up, securing my hood and zipping everything up.
Adding my gloves next, its hard to handle things once they are on. So I get my camera going and everything else is already in place.
Seeing bees enter and exit I was happy with their status, did not open the hive to check them out. Though I need to one more time before just leaving them alone for the winter. Checking back with them next year.
Normally I buy large bags of pool salt, but it seems with the winter on the way many stores have stopped carrying it. So I had to use Epsom salt instead. Many bags of it as they are much smaller than the pool salt bags.
Looking into the opening of the hive I can see many bees on a frame and at least one guarding the opening.
Putting the salt down I mostly put it behind the hive. That way when it rains the water will drive the salt down into the ground downhill a little.
I also added salt around the table, since the beetles drop off when working on the frames.
Hah it almost looks like snow, but its not cold enough yet to get any.
Hoping this salt helps keep the hive beetles down, I also have traps in the hive for the beetles and just used checkmite to help keep the hive alive. Maybe next year with enough salt I will not need to use such chemicals. But did not want to lose my hive on the first year so I am glad I treated them. Hopefully they will make it through the winter and come out the other side of the year strong.