Walnut Farm Bees Newsletters

We're now deep into fall and winter is around the corner. New mite treatment products continue to be released and approved by the EPA in the U.S., including a new product called Norroa (only from Mann Lake) that is supposed to provide several months of lasting mite treatment. Read the details carefully before jumping to purchase the product as there are a lot of restrictions as far as when and how this new product works. There are other products in the pipeline that should be available by next summer, including a new organic acid in strip form. 

1. If your honeybee colonies are light on food, your chance to feed them before winter is running out. If they don't have enough honey or stores, you may need to feed them some form of sugar over the winter, whether fondant, sugar bricks, candy boards, or similar. Here is a great table of sample weights that I've found to be a good guideline for much of Pennsylvania and southern New York.
2. By now, your varroa mite levels should have been long under control if you wish your colonies to survive until spring. If you have colonies dying between now and February, the culprit is generally the diseases carried by varroa mites. It is still good practice to do a mite count in October, as you'll get a much more realistic picture than you may have had in August, with less brood to hide the mites and other fall variables (such as nearby collapsing colonies). This can help give you context in the event that a particular colony doesn't make it through the winter.
3. Our fall honey (knotweed with goldenrod and aster) should be ready at the end of October. Now that we have had some freezes overnight in northern PA, we'll soon be harvesting the fall honey. 
   
4. We now have winter fondant (Hive Alive) available at the farm shop. 
5. Here are our 2025 prices for supplies (small price changes in 2026): https://walnutfarmbees.com/pages/current-pricelist