Seasons

I think that I am finding myself being more aware of the changing seasons now that I am a beekeeper. The bees are governed totally by the season that is current and particularly by the season that is coming - they started preparing for winter months ago! We, in our modern, western world function largely unchanged through the seasons - we might choose our leisure activity by the weather and the outside temperature but much else remains unaltered. God gave us seasons for a reason: we should take the time to appreciate them and go with the flow of our seasonal calendar. What an amazing God we have.

Varroa!

So, I decided that I should see how much of a Varroa problem I have. I placed a oiled A4 sheet beneath the Genesis hive for 24 hours and then counted the number of mites on the sheet. I counted 5 and figure that my A4 sheet represents about 50% of the floor area. That gives me a count of 10 mites in 24 hours which according to various Internet sources is a low infestation rate. I chose to use an organic treatment called Api Life Var that contains Thymol, Eucalyptus and menthol oils. I placed a quarter of the pad in each corner on top of the frame bars and left it for a week. The instructions say repeat again but I didn't. They also say it works better in warm weather so I probably should have done it earlier but temp has been 16-17C this week.
I have wrapped some small mesh chicken wire around the hive to keep the woodpeckers off.
Paul, my mentor, says I should have stopped inspecting a few weeks ago and that beginners like me should start with 2 hives - 1 to play with and 1 to do properly!
Just had surgery on my shoulder so good timing there as I should not need to check inside the hive again until March.