November 28th with Thanksgiving past and the winter wrap intalled...Had been supplying 2-1 sugar water for the past month or so and had treated Hive A with mite wafers on two ocassions about a week apart in mid-fall. Noticed hundreds of dead mites on the mite trap surface within a day or two of wafer application and will continue to use the more natural mite control methods, on both hives, as opposed to the wafers, after evaluating in the spring. It will be interesting to see if the mite wafer applications provided a greater benefit in controlling mite populations in the spring, when compared to Hive B who simply had the natural mite trap smeared with Crisco shortening. Certainly a learning experience with lots more considerations "than meets the eye" when first looking at starting with bee keeping. Very enjoyable challenge and outdoor pursuit...Looking ahead at adding 4 more hives this spring, making a modest bee yard of 6 colonies, and enjoying the vision of harvesting lots more honey next season. Diane's garden produced lots of great vegetables this year, we have a freezer full of fresh venison from bow season and our small apple orchard planted to hopefully begin with a small apple harvest maybe as early as next fall. Life is good and we need to stay close to and care for the Earth.