The heat wave has broken, rain has returned, and fall is approaching. For us that brings anticipation of cozy sweaters and autumn colors though we know that’s really several weeks away.

If your bees have had a good year we can expect a honey harvest.

The bees, for their part are already thinking about winter. The bees being raised now will be the bees you go into winter with and so this is a crucial time of year. The best way to help the bees is to manage the mite population and make sure they have a good population with lots of resources going into winter. The best way to do that is to have an up-to-date mite count so you can know what you need to do next.

The next meeting will be all about these season closing activities.

To start the meeting we will be having refreshments courtesy of our Secretary, Emma Wallace. Providing the honey tasting this month will be member Michael Murphy whose ‘water white’ honey took the blue ribbon at the Delaware County Fair.

We will be adding a new question to the introductions regarding mite counts so Bee prepared.

The educational section of the evening will be kicked off by Richard Lercari presenting on how to extract honey at the end of the season. He will be followed by Steven Davis presenting on winter preparations and what you can do now and in the coming weeks to get your ladies through the winter.

The eductational presentations will be followed by the business meeting.

The monthly meeting of the Leatherstocking Beekeepers’ Association will be held at 7 p.m., snacks begin at 6:30 p.m., at the Fenimore Farm and Country Village, 5775 State highway 80, Cooperstown.

We’ll Bee seeing you there.