Late summer

Late summer asks three jobs of you inside the same few weeks, and the order you do them in matters as much as doing them at all.

• Harvest first, while there is still capped surplus above the brood nest and before the flow fully ends.
• Treat for mites next, and treat promptly rather than after the harvest chores are wrapped up, because the winter bees your colony is about to rear cannot be protected retroactively once they have already developed under a heavy mite load.
• Feed last, building winter stores with syrup once the mite problem is handled rather than before it, so you are not feeding a colony you have not yet treated.