06/07/2026
Uncomfortable truth 🤫
The way you treat your hives against Varroa in September and October will directly determine the survival rate that your hives will have during the winter season.
Give me a minute to explain why this specific autumn window is a non-negotiable deadline for your apiary.
The bees being reared in your hives during September and October are completely different from your typical summer foragers (these are your winter bees).
Unlike a summer bee that burns out in less than 6 weeks, a winter bee is biologically programmed to survive for 4 to 6 months to keep the winter cluster warm and protect the queen.
To achieve this extended lifespan, these autumn generations require massive, healthy fat bodies packed with vitellogenin to sustain their immune systems through the freezing cold.
If your Varroa population is peaking during this exact window, the parasites will feed directly on the fat bodies of your developing winter brood.
It's sad, but a mite-infested winter bee doesn't just suffer from nutritional depletion, but her immune system is also being hit really badly.
This leaves the door widely open for lethal viral infections like Deformed Wing Virus.
When you delay your treatments until late November because you are waiting for a convenient weekend, you might successfully drop the remaining mites, but you are treating a hive full of walking ghosts ☹️.
In my opinion, a winter bee damaged in October will inevitably die prematurely in December or January (hence the "inexplicable winter losses" that so many beekeepers have during winter).
The truth is that winter mortality is rarely caused by the cold itself, but by a failure to protect the winter bees while they are still being formed in the cells.
You should stop crossing your fingers, start monitoring your autumn mite loads with precision, and clean up your hives in September and October so your winter generation actually has a life to live.
I hope this helps :).
Thank you for reading 📖
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this topic 🧡
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