Andrew and the crew have been working hard to prepare the bees for moving back to Vancouver Island in a few weeks.
Sadly, our hives are struggling right now.
The bees are fighting off a pest called the varroa mite, which is a nasty parasite.
The varroa lives on the backs of the bees, sucking their blood and spreading disease.
When there are too many, they can overwhelm and kill a hive.
It's one of the nastiest bugs that beekeepers dread and work hard to fight off.
For a few years now, we have had very close to zero mites in our operation.
Regardless, we keep a very close eye and take preventative measures.
Unlike other livestock, bees can travel long distances on their own. They can pick up bugs or viruses from other beehives and spread them around.
Despite our efforts, we have seen the mite numbers explode this fall, and they are making our bees sick.
To try to save as many hives as we can, Andrew has been combining weaker hives. That way, there is one single large population, which has a better chance of surviving the winter.
The crew has also been giving the hives an organic acid treatment to kill as many mites as they can.
It's a lot of work, and unfortunately, we won't know if our efforts will pay off until next spring.
Frankly, it's demoralizing to keep working at it and it might be all for nothing. But it will definitely be nothing if we don't try.
Well, that's farming for ya.
