One common refrain from beekeepers is that if you ask any two beekeepers a question you will get three answers. This is particularly when you discus when the beekeeping season runs. We feel the season starts in January when we first treat for mites during the winter brood break and ends when winter preparations are complete.
To get the bees ready for winter we have checked and treated for mites and have fed them extensively. The dry warm weather has meant that our bees have been active but have had little to forage on. This means they have been consuming large amounts of stored resources. To ensure that they have enough to make it through the winter we have fed our 11 hives in excess of 450 pounds of table sugar.
Other winter preparations have included putting on entrance reducers, adding closed cell insulation to the top of the hives under the covers, and placing candy boards on each hive.
Other than perform weekly visual inspections of the outside of the hives and the occasional peek under the cover to check on the state of the candy boards, we will leave the bees alone until January when we will look to perform oxalic acid treatments of the hives when they are naturally brood free.