August 19, 2025, seventeen people were in attendance. Buddy made a motion to accept the July 15, 2025 minutes as emailed out on July 23, 2025. Mary seconded the motion. All were in favor.
A few members brought in samples of their honey for others to try. All had different flavors and were very good.
Devin Gentry (Transylvania County’s Association President) gave a presentation on preparing your hives for the winter. August is the time to think about winter. “When bees on clover, the flow is over”. Don’t take off too much honey. You need to make sure the bees have plenty of honey for winter. You may need to feed your bees with sugar water to make sure they have enough honey stored for the winter. If your hives are low on stores now, he recommends feeding sugar syrup at a 1:1 ratio through early-mid september. After that you should switch to a thicker 2:1 ratio as you get later in fall. You shouldn’t feed your bees liquid in the winter. Fall syrup is thicker to keep moisture out.
Devin’s preferred winter configuration is usually one deep hive and a medium super on top. Both should be full with mostly honey and some brood. Don’t have a queen excluder on for winter. The queen needs to be able to move up for more honey. Brood is usually in the middle frames. The outside frames in both boxes should have honey.
In August/September a lot of brood starts hatching out. Bob Binnie’s you-tube videos are a good resource.
Now is also a good time to treat for mites. Alcohol or dawn dish soap in an EasyCheck container is a good way to check your mite count. You need about 300 bees (1/2 cup). Powder sugar doesn’t work well for a mite check. Our humidity is too high. 6 mites = 2% infestation. 9 mites = 3% infestation. If apiary has one hive over the mite count, you need to treat all the hives. Devin likes to use Apiguard this time of year for his bee mite treatment.
September is a good time to add about 1/2 a pollen patty. After 7 days check to make sure it is being eaten. The patty can also attract hive beetles if it is not consumed by the bees. Devin is going to try the supplement Apis Biologix (https://www.apisbiologix.com/) as a supplement to prepare his bees for the winter. There are several other supplements that can be added to the sugar water to help the bees be healthy and survive the winter. You may want to also include beetle traps in your hives when feeding. Swiffer “unscented” mop pad refills are also a good way to catch beetles. You can add pieces of it to the corners of the hives.
Need to add the entrance reducers on the hives as soon as your mite treatment is over to keep out mice and prevent robbing. When it starts cooling off, you can also add a shim board and Reflectix thermal bubble roll on top of the inner cover to provide extra insulation for the winter. Devin cuts a slit in the middle of the thermal wrap and adds some sugar, or a winter patty on top of the thermal wrap. Then he can just peek inside to see if they need more food for the winter. If they aren’t eating any of the supplemental food, then he knows they should have plenty of honey.
Spring time you may want to add another deep box if your bees need more room to expand.
Randy had a couple of announcements. There are still a few openings to volunteer at the state’s bee exhibit for the Mountain State Fair, September 5-14 https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090944AFAC22A4F94-57401182-2025/185455551#/. Henderson County Beekeepers association will be having a full-day conference featuring Bob Binnie and other inspiring speakers October 11th. The location has not been confirmed yet. The cost will be around $60 to attend. https://hcbeekeepers.org/
Good luck with your winter preparation!
Hope to see you all at our next meeting, Tuesday, September 16, 2025, 106 E Morgan St. Brevard, NC. 6:30 pm to mingle with others. The official meeting begins at 7 and ends around 8 pm.
