Welcome to the start of the 2027 bee season! Yep, you read that correctly. As we get towards the end of summer and into fall it’s the setup that can make or break next year’s production of honey. The window is narrowing for correcting any critical conditions in the colony that could result in a poor crop next spring or even worse, a winter loss. So, let’s dive into a few areas that we beekeepers should be tracking as we prepare for 2027.

Varroa mites. Varroa mites are the biggest problem honey bee colonies face. Pressure from disease transmission can not only slow the colony’s progress but kill it altogether. Knowing your colonies mite level gives you the information needed to take action and keep the mites under control. I personally use the alcohol/soap wash to check 300 bees for mites. It’s not the only testing method but it works well and fits into my routine. The key issue is testing and knowing your bees’ mite levels so you can take
action. If you are a prophylactic or treatment free beekeeper, I hope it’s a decision made through research and careful choice, and I wish you success. But for many beekeepers keeping mites under control is going to require testing and treating to raise healthy winter bees to make it until next spring.

Queens. How old is your queen? How is her laying pattern? The health and
fecundity (egg laying capacity) of your queen should be assessed while queens are still available. The books will say a queen can live up to 5 years. However, in 10 years of beekeeping I’ve never had one live that long. An older queen has a greater chance of failing over the winter than a young queen. Furthermore, as queens age they lose some of their virility. Their capacity to lay will diminish. During your inspections, carefully assess the brood pattern of your queen. A consistent “shotgun pattern” may indicate that your queen’s fecundity (that word again) is on the decline. The time to
replace an old or failing queen is when you can get a mated queen, which often is hard to come by as the calendar year wears on. Replace any questionable queen as soon as you can.

Food. Odds are you’ve pulled the honey off the hive. Not only to bottle up but also to allow for mite treatment (that just keeps coming up!). You need to assess the remaining food stores so the colony doesn’t run short over winter when food supplies are limited. Not just for overwintering, but also for raising those winter bees. I usually trickle feed some light syrup after harvesting just to keep the queen laying. Not enough to build up numbers, but just enough to keep some young bees emerging. Later on in the fall/early winter I’ll feed some heavy syrup to get some stores for winter. That’s my technique using single brood management. If you run a different hive set up then your technique may be different, but your goals are the
same. Don’t let your bees starve out.

Space. Keeping the hive appropriately spaced during the fall means keeping the space to a minimum. Don’t add a super or another hive body because you see some bearding. Bearding is normal on hot and humid days. Keep the bees packed to prevent small hive beetles or wax moths from establishing a presence. These pests don’t need much of an invitation to join your colony, as they’ll crash the party on their own. But a strong colony that doesn’t have a lot of excess space can manage them and keep them under control. This may require removing a box, moving the colony to a smaller box or using a spacer board. It’s a critical component of beekeeping. So, even though we have just finished cleaning up the extraction equipment and bottling our harvest it’s time to set our bees up for a great 2027 bee season.

Maintain correct space, provide adequate feed, ensure you have a quality queen and get those mite levels down. Give your bees the best chance to make you a bumper crop of honey or bunch of nucs!

– John Kasprak, CCBA Director and NCSBA Master Beekeeper