Thanks Tracey - I am planning to harvest the Flow frames this weekend indeed. What I was more curious about is the prodigious bearding on my two strong hives, re: late season here…so far you’re the closest thing to a “Northeast USA” beek to chime in 
I’m going to post about mead elsewhere in a minute tho 
I went through all of my hives this past weekend:
All but two of them had lots of bees on the front of the hive during peak foraging hours and all but two were really loaded with honey: I think the hive senses sufficient stores for over-wintering, therefore, no need to waste energy on foraging. The other two hives were lighter than I would have liked but I had plenty of honey frames to give from the 32+ over-loaded hives.
I still keep seven 3 deep hives and of all seven, the top deep all capped honey. I thought about harvesting those but decided to save that for Spring splitting.
Thanks Ed - that’s an explanation I like, fully-topped up hives with bees just relaxing on the porch, watching the sunset every day until it’s time to go in for winter.
Wow, three deeps with top boxes full of honey - inspections must be back-breaking!
They are: That’s why I’ve reduced my number of 3 deep hives. I’ve started experimenting with single brood chamber beekeeping and will try and do some comparisons/pros vs cons.
I’ll be very interested to hear about that…
I too rode out the huge number of bees right at the last of this summer (Sept-Oct) to the first days of autumn. Our weather went from very hot, huge beard, to they are not hanging outside any longer and its cooler weather. Lots of nail biting then but now I have tons of baby bees all over my back yard.
This is the part of the year where the strength of my colonies are feeling like it’s to good to be true after the spring queen cell swarming drama.
My hives are strong and healthy and tons of stored honey though they are consuming a lot of sugar water too. I’m sitting on pins and needles hoping nothing dramatic happens this late in the season. I’m ready with fondant, my vivaldi boards, different bottom boards and all things for wintering over.
I’ll be doing an inspection this week, and hoping the weather stays warm enough to treat for varraoa again prior to the long winter. Good luck @Eva
Checked my bees today. Amazingly all 5 hives are looking strong and all still have food. Not sure what my smallest one box hive is eating but they still have the sugar I gave them in December.
Last year I lost 3 of 5 by now. Maybe its an easier winter for them or maybe its because I treated for mites a little heavier last Fall. I used MAQS again and left single strips in all winter. Who knows but I have 5 strong hives. Only a few weeks before the first nectar sources starup (purple dead nettle).
That is great to hear:
It’s the same story here in SJersey; I made sure to treat for mites, made sure all stay heavy with food, moisture control and wind breaks: I think I’m at 32 out of 36 alive.
Last year I think I wound up with 15 out of 30 something with a more hands off approach.
Swamp Maples should be blooming any day now, next week for sure with temps heading for the 50’s.
Awesome 
I too have survivors this time around - very pleased that two are alive & kicking and very active on these mild days we’ve had 
I also did a better more consistent treatment job…plus great buildup last season.
Mine are still strong but the rain and cold weather in Tennessee has been preventing me from the early mite treatment. I’m having to feed pollen patties and fondant as I can’t inspect to see what their honey stores are doing. I’m nervous as this will be winter number 2 and I want the 3 hives to survive. I’m so glad to hear yours are doing well.
Same here with iffy weather all the time - feel like this is the home stretch where things could still go south…
Cool! My bees were out today with the sun & near-50F weather too. There’s skunk cabbage at the creek nearby so I wonder if it’s emerged here too!
You can if you upload them to YouTube first, then post the link here. 
The anticipation is killing me! we’ve had another cold snap here after a couple of warmer days at the end of last week, and judging by the forecast we will finally push past late winter in the next week or so. I’m sure we’ll still see nighttime freezes here & there - and don’t we almost always seem to get some snow around Easter?!
But, on our last warm day there was a ton of activity at my last living colony (another one bit the dust 
) and pollen pants were hitting the runway in lovely saffron and cream 
I can’t wait to get in and inspect!
Oh no. 
Too cold?
Fingers crossed for you guys over there.
me too Eva, it’s only been warm enough for me to crack the top and top load some pollen patties and fondant. Though I need to do a varroa treatment and it’s making me worried! Though my hives look strong right now I still worry about starvation because I don’t have that kind of experience.
Yeah, I’m gonna go ahead & chalk it up to Varroa. I stepped up my OAV treatment frequency last season plus a late-winter blast, but this latter resulted in a pretty big mite drop that I was only able to see post-mortem as this hive was on a solid bottom. So I’m guessing disease and/or general weakness overcame them in the end. I had foam insulation boards on all sides and under the lid, so I believe they stayed ok warmth-wise.
It’s tough to accept so close to spring, and when only a little over ten days ago they were out foraging and very frisky when I put feed inside 
I understand your frustration Martha, we’re waiting for it to cool down. 3 weeks into autumn & we’re still experiencing summer conditions.
Ah, so Australia has a different Equinox from the rest of us? 
You will cool off soon, @JeffH, and then I look forward to your stories of splitting logs and lighting fires while I am roasting under the California summer sun. 
