MEETING REMINDER--This Saturday, August 17th

There will be a club meeting at the Rushford Meadery this Saturday, August 17th, at 9:30AM. There will be a short discussion period and then we will extract the frames of honey from the two club hives.  If you want to extract your honey afterwards please contact Pam to get your needs on the schedule.  

Cleaning Your Beekeeping Gloves

With the season winding down it time to consider a little equipment maintenance.  Here is a recommendation on how to clean goatskin gloves.

https://betterbee.com/instructions-and-resources/washing-your-goatskin-leather-gloves.asp?utm_source=Betterbee+Contact+List&utm_campaign=dc72de69c0-august-newsletter-080819&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_61e19f35ed-dc72de69c0-190789533

NEVER SEEN THIS BEFORE--UPDATE

Yesterday and today I have been treating my hives with FormicPro.   I also specifically choose this week because of the milder temperatures, which slow the formic acid vapor release. Usually the bees just buzz a little louder when the pads are put in and give the pads a wide berth.  Yesterday I saw an unusual reaction.  About 15 minutes after I treated a hive it seemed that all of the bees exited the hive and then formed a beard beneath the outer cover.  Its now been 24 hours and the majority still haven't gone back in.  I've treated about 40 hives in the last two days and no other hive reacted this way.  

UPDATE--The bees went back in the hive after 3 days.  A week later I checked to verify if the queen was OK.  She wasn't in the hive.  In fact there was no eggs, uncapped or capped brood in the hive.  That means this hive had gone queenless at least 3 weeks ago; prior to the formic acid treatment.  Maybe since the bees were queenless they had no reluctance to abandon the queen in the hive.  

WHAT'S NEXT?

July is winding down and August will soon arrive in central Wisconsin.  Typically, average temperatures will be at their highest of the year and rainfall at its lowest in August.
  

All beekeeping is a local event and in my area the honey flow has essentially stopped.  In the last two weeks of July I have not had to add a single honey super in my apiary.   In previous years I had always felt the honey flow was 95% complete by about July 15^th.   This year appears to be no different.  Since I had to temporarily remove my honey supers while applying formic acid pads to my hives during the last week of July, I also took that opportunity to record the amount of honey present in those honey supers.  I will be comparing those values with the amount of honey I obtain at the end of August when I will be removing my honey supers for processing.   I will report on the additional honey, if any, I obtain in September.   As I said all beekeeping is local and you may get different results.  Some areas in the ECWBA area have purple loosestrife which provides a good nectar flow in August.  This invasive species has not reached my area yet.  At best the bees will probably just break even during the month of August; consuming as much as they bring in.
  

Follow this link to see how the honey flow has dwindled to nothing in the Minneapolis area. 
 naturesnectar.blogspot.com/


If you attend our club meetings or read the letters from our club president then you know that August, September and October are the most critical time in getting your hives ready for winter.  Mite levels MUST be knocked down in late July or early August so that the nurse bees can be relatively mite and virus free.  These bees can then raise disease free winter bees (fat bees).   Weather predictions for early August look to be acceptable for the use of formic acid for mite control.  Get it done!  If using other mite treatments make sure you remove your honey first.
  

After you complete your mite treatments then you need to evaluate the condition of each hive for its ability to survive winter.  Is it queenright?  Formic acid mite treatments are known to kill a small percentage of queens.  Also, many beekeepers neglect to inspect their hives while the honey supers are installed.  Verify there are both eggs and uncapped brood about 3 weeks after the formic acid treatment, which signifies there is a queen present in the hive.
   

Is the hives population sufficiently large?  Ideally, if you look between the top and bottom brood chambers you should see bees between every frame.  This is the time to combine two weak hives if needed.
  

Is there enough honey in the hive for winter?  The upper brood chamber should weigh roughly 90 lbs.  Visually, as a minimum, the 3 outer frames (six total) should be solid honey.  If not, feed the hive 2 to 1 sugar syrup until they will take no more.   Feeding needs to be done early in the fall.  The bees need to process the syrup and convert it to honey like (>80%) sugar concentrations.  This takes time and warm weather.  Wait too long and your hive may not be able to process the syrup.  Try to get this done before the end of September.  By October temperatures will limit the processing of syrup to only a few hours per day.
  

Watch your hives entrances in August and September.  With the nectar dearth that normally occurs at this time robbing may happen.  Robbing screens or downsizing the entrance width may be necessary.
  

Some beekeepers arbitrarily replace queens in the fall.  Young queens have a higher winter survival rate and also have a stronger spring buildup. 

END OF JULY

As you can see from yesterday's post I have been doing my late July/early August mite treatments.  Remember most mite treatments require the honey supers be removed first.  Formic acid treatments (MAQS or FormicPro) are the exception, but they do requirements that temperatures be less than 92F.  The next few weeks looking to be acceptable.

Follow this link for more recommendations on mite treatments.

naturesnectar.blogspot.com/

By the way the "formic" swarm in yesterday's photo still has not re-entered the hive.

I have also noticed the flight activity from my hives has slowed considerably.  This is probably do to a lessened availability of nectar.