Wrapping Up the Season!!!

I only had two colonies out of eight that really rallied in the past two weeks.  Together, I estimate they have brought in about 60 more pounds of honey.  We'll see when I extract the frames.  Provided our queens haven't escaped their cages or our workers have created any new queens that somehow miraculously got fertilized enough to start laying, we should be very close to wrapping up our season!!!  I have already taken 99% of the honey.  When I extract, I will give the "sticky" frames back to the bees to clean up.  This will make them very happy.  Then I will put my sugar feeder back into each hive and fill it with 1:1 Sugar/Water every few days.  They will hopefully draw out any comb from bare foundations.  When I feel like I'm ready to be done with beekeeping for the season, I will put some water into my husband's shopvac and either early in the AM or later in the PM (when it's cold to ensure all the bees are inside the hive and not out foraging) I will vacuum the bees.  I will then tape off the end of the hose and leave the bees in the shopvac overnight (24-36 hours) to ensure they are all dead and none fly back out.  This is a sad time!!  I then dump the organic vermiculite into my compost for next springs nutrient-rich compost.