September 1st! It was a very productive week. Most of the honey is off the hives, and most of them had one or two mite treatments in August. I've had much greater success with hive strength and overwintering if we begin the major knockdown in August rather than September. If it waits until October, I assume that there will be more bees dead than alive by January. Hopefully we stay the course and keep the bees happy and healthy! Here is Wynne wielding the magic pest purging Apiguard syringe! (Ironically it is not not one of the mite treatments involving synthetic chemicals despite the syringe's image more associated with pharma-type substances.) Bye mites! Happy Healthy Bees in the Making! Without swift parasite control this time of year, there can be a remarkable crash from overflowing hives like the ones above. Now is the time to ensure strong clusters for next spring. Right now we're facing a week of rain, so I'm hoping the forecast is at least partly wrong. There are still a few more yards to save and some more barrels of honey to harvest. I have not been real lucky in missing undesired rain lately however. Here is a recent load coming off the truck! Pallets and Forks make Unloading Joyful and Restful! We have two or three days of honey to extract in the building, and then we'll need to press on whenever the weather permits.