There is a hint of Fall around. Golden Rod has almost finished, some other blooming plants have faded. No frost yet, the average frost date is around mid October. Lots of folks are predicting a hard winter but I’m not sure what their information is based on. Woolly caterpillars or lots of big spiders are a couple of predictors that I’ve heard to support this thought.

My beekeeping over wintering theory is to keep them strong, well fed, young, healthy and don’t worry about what nature is going to dish out. I checked for brood in all the hives today and found solid patterns in all but one and it had a good pattern just not as many frames.There was a lot of activity at the entrances. It was almost 80º F so that is what I would expect from hives that are doing well. I’m still feeding but will taper off to feed only the lighter hives. My goal is to not have winter starvation because of lack of capped honey.