By now most hobbyist will have completed everything, and wintered down their hives. For some of us the work continues.

However we all must protect our most valuable resource. The honey supers and frames. Our enemy here is the wax moth. It only takes a few months and all the dark frames turn into silk. This was demonstrated to me last year when I left the hot room full of supers and went away on holiday. When I checked it two months later it was full of wax moth cocoons. It took two days to clean down the frames and scrub out the hot room.

Most beekeepers stack their honey supers away immediately after extraction, treat with PDB and then forget about them.

I prefer to leave the supers on the hives until autumn, as the bees are far better at keeping wax moth under control. Once the colder weather arrives, supers are collected off the hives and placed in covered storage. The windier and colder the situation the better. Leaving supers in an enclosed space will only encourage wax moth development. If you have this situation then you will need to place about a tablespoon of PDB crystals on a piece of paper on top of five supers and cover. Plug cracks or holes with foam plastic so that the gas can't escape before doing its job. PDB does not kill wax moth eggs so about a month later repeat the PDB treatment. An alternative for those with only a few supers is to put them in plastic bags and treat.

I prefer to stack my supers on pallets with a queen excluders underneath to prevent mice damage. This allows air to circulate through the stacks inhibiting the development of moth eggs ad lava.

When you winter down your hives it's important to check each hive. Cut the grass around the hive and make sure it's off the ground so there is a good airflow underneath it. Make sure that the landing board has a slight slope so that the rain run out of the hive. Make sure the entrance is closed down to prevent mice getting in. Under the roof make sure there is a little top ventilation. The equivalent of a 25 mm entrance. This can either be cut into the crown board or the board can be lifted slightly by putting a twig under to one end. Heft the hive to check its weight. It should be difficult to lift off the stand using the top super's finger grip.

Lightweight hives should be fed sugar syrup. Weak hives (those with an old queen should be united with another small hive. Dispatch one of the queens and put the hives with the best queen on top the two sheets of newsprint between so there is a slow uniting. If you can't find the old queen, put the best one on top as before but there is a chance that both queens could be killed so you will need to check a month later. A puff of smoke over the bees will tell you if they are queenless or not.

One strong hive with plenty of young bees will winter better than two small hives. If you can, carry a few nucs through the winter to make up for any winter losses. These need little care but after June as brood production starts replace the outside frames with fully capped honey frames. Being a smaller unit they could require at least four honey frames to bring them through to October.

It's never too late to requeen a hive. Remember that queens are generally produced and accepted when there is a honey flow on. You can simulate this by feeding the hive with sugar syrup when the queen cage is put in the hive and for a few days after. Don't spill any syrup as this could cause robbing. If you do get robbing in your garden, cover the hive entrance with grass and turn on the sprinkler for half an hour. This should settle down the bees.

Things to do this month: Winter down your hives - check food, check for BL. (This is most important, as hives could have picked this up by robbing weaker hives). Check hives for drainage and mouse guards, replace any rotten woodware. Worked old frames and broken frame to the outside of the super so they can be replaced in the spring. Check for mites. Strips are best but a sugar shake is quick and gives reasonable results. If in doubt about mite numbers, treat. Attend to long grass, mend fences around apiaries and keep an eye on stored honey supers.

I have about 100 hives in the restricted area north of Wellington. To take the honey out of these apiaries I have to either leave the honey stored for 30 days in a bee proof environment or gas the supers using methyl bromide. I cover the honey supers in plastic, weight down the edges and gas using scales to measure the correct quantity before coming home. The load is left overnight for the gas to do its thing. This is a lot of work, takes extra time plus can be dangerous. Before I leave the restricted area, the Ute gets the once over for hitchhiker bees.

Is it worth all this extra work? I checked a drip tray yesterday after removing about 40 dead bees and found a dead Varroa mite. It doesn't take much to spread Varroa. Just one passenger bee!

Please, please, please - all beekeepers in the infected area treat your hives now or within the next two weeks so that treatments will be co-ordinated to give an efficient kill within all managed hives. If you know of any feral hives, keep and eye on them or seal them in their hollows before they begin to abscond next season.