Well, it finally feels like summer has arrived! Long hot days towards the end of this month have kept the bees very busy. It is more than uncomfortable beekeeping in hot weather but luckily our earlier hard work has paid off and there have not been so many hard jobs to carry out this July.
This time of year is ideal for requeening any colonies that may need it. We have found that drone layers have been particularly abundant this year, perhaps due to the wet weather we experienced in June. The queens were ready to go out and get mated but the rain either stopped them entirely or they failed to get properly mated. So, this month we have introduced a few newly mated queens we had in reserve to get these colonies back on track. So far, so good.
Wasps have been spotted out and about recently, so we are keeping a close eye on them in the apiary. Strong colonies tend to have no problem in guarding their entrance from wasps, but weaker colonies and nuclei may struggle. The wasps’ invasion of the hive and theft of stores can lead to the collapse of the colony. That is not to say that larger colonies cannot become stressed from wasps – they can – and it is important to be aware of changes in behaviour that may be a symptom of stress. The simplest thing to do is to place an entrance block into the hive to reduce the space the bees have to guard (as pictured).
If you are taking honey off your hives, this is the time to add more supers if needed, remove surplus honey, get your equipment ready for extraction and replace the ‘wet’ supers back onto the same hive for the bees to refill. It is an exciting time of year and the pinnacle of many people’s beekeeping season. Just remember that it is better to remove supers when it is cooler and there are fewer bees flying (so late evening/early morning). Robbing can be a major problem anyway, without the beekeeper encouraging it with spilled honey all over the apiary and bees flying everywhere.
Going into August, one of the main tasks will be to assess the varroa situation and figure out what the plan regarding possible autumn treatment may be. In addition, further inspections should reveal any colonies that look like they may not make it through the winter and we will look to unite these with another colony. Hopefully there will not be too many!
