October is best described in a poem written by William Cullen Bryant called “The Death of the Flowers.” He describes days as melancholy and sad, meadows as brown and dead, and he writes an ode to flowers in their grave.
The job of keeping honey bees alive is challenging. Feeding bees and treating for mites are things to take care of now. October is a month of looking backward and forward. Good strong colonies are still at risk and weak colonies can be combined with the chance they might survive.
The beekeeping world changed In 1852. The New England Farmer published an article by L.L. Langstroth, called “A Practical Treatise on the Hive and Honey-Bee,” about a new hive that had been patented October 5, 1852. It credited him with 16 years of experience. Another magazine, The Christian Register, also shared information. Langstroth was observing something that many others missed — something called “a bee space,” which is the area bees use to move about the hive where they will not fill the space with comb or propolis. He read and studied some of the best beekeeping literature in the world looking for information that would guide him in an effort to tame bees. Thus, he built a hive using the bee-space principle. All of us use management techniques that recognize this vital principle. His book did far more. He listed a number of management techniques which have stood the test of time.
“It is important to observe what honey bees do and how one can manage them,” The Christian Register wrote. “It details some facts which would be incredible did they not seem verified by careful experiment.”
By October we must understand that honey bee behavior changes as days get shorter. One of the first things I noticed is that bees become more defensive as fall approaches. Bees begin to use propolis to reduce the hive entrance , and guard bees are more active. This is especially noticeable with feral bee nests. One good reason to place entrance reducers in a hive is to help bees defend accumulated honey stores. Entrance reducers also prevent mice from overwintering in the hive.
The important thing about entrance reducers is that they be placed in the entrance well before cold weather begins. We can easily observe that flight activity at the hive entrance is greatly reduced …
