Once again I've returned to my professorial life at Mount Mercy, so I've wound up queen sales for 2012. More queens are going out every summer, and I hope that this year's six-legged ladies are serving everyone well. We were very fortunate that the heat did not complicate delivery efforts to any great extent. Hopefully the logistics go well next year too. While I do enjoy raising queens, I am pleased that my eyes can have a break from this kind of scene--intensely scanning for tiny eggs and the movements of new queens through the mesh of my beloved veil: On the honey front, the harvest in this area is very nearly complete, and almost all of the hives have had their full regimen of mite treatments using Hopguard and/or Apiguard. I was just counting up the barrels extracted thus far, and it looks like the Cedar Rapids area bees will average over 140 lbs. That is a pretty exceptional year. My fingers are crossed that the bees will be alive next spring. It should help that most of them will be living on the honey they're gathering this fall. When I went around doubling the hives I ran as singles through the honey season, I found them to be the heaviest September singles I've ever lifted. A few of them actually swarmed because they had lots of bees and were packing in honey. The goldenrod bloom is pretty stunning in some areas. With the non-existent winter and extremely hot summer, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that September beekeeping is veering from the usual course as well.