FROM THE APIARY-LATE AUGUST by beekeeper Fred

FROM THE APIARY-LATE AUGUST

This year, in recognition of the varroa epidemic, I have altered my late summer beekeeping methods.  In previous years I had removed the honey supers in mid-August and then treated for mites.  This year multiple mite treatments were the order of the day.  In early summer I had applied a ½ dose of FormicPro.  Then in the last week of July I applied a full dose of FormicPro.   Although it requires more work on the part of the beekeeper I laboriously removed the honey supers, split the brood chamber to insert the miticide and then immediately reinstalled the honey supers.  Please note that formic acid treatments are the only ones certified for use while the honey supers are in place.  With my mite treatments done I could hopefully gain additional honey flow in August from alfalfa, goldenrod, knapweed and Joe Pye weed.

Most of the honey my bees have gathered has been by overwintered hives.  Hives with new packages were slow to build up and consequently have yielded little honey.  I would say that 75% of my new packages did not put anything into honey supers.  The best hive in the remaining 25% of packages yielded about 1 1/2 supers of honey.   My packages were received May 1^st this year.  Next year I plan to request packages at the first available date; usually about April 7^th.  This entails a bigger cold weather risk, but gives the hive an additional 3 weeks of buildup time so that they can be up to full strength in time for the start of the honey flow in mid-June. 

In early August I set up 12 nucs for overwintering.  These nucs are double deep 5 frame nucs (10 frames total).  I have started treating these nucs with oxalic acid vapor to minimize any mites.  My first attempt at overwintering nucs last year was not successful.  They expired in January, which is when varroa related diseases also begin killing full size hives.   If I get these nucs to survive I won’t need to buy packages in the spring. 

In mid-August I started to feed 2 to 1 sugar syrup to several June start-up hives and to any hive that has not been putting honey into honey supers.  This feeding will continue until the hive doesn’t take any proffered feed.  It takes time and warm weather for the bees to dry the syrup to the 82% sugar concentration needed for safe storage.  Don’t wait too long because cold weather will result in the bees going into cluster and ignoring the feed.

While feeding the hives I also take the time to evaluate the strength of each hive.  There are several weak hives that will be culled or combined prior to winter.  Even so I am treating them with formic or oxalic acid vapor to ensure that if they collapse that they will not become a varroa bomb and infect my other hives. 

What’s ahead?

-Now I am simply waiting for the end of the goldenrod nectar flow.  Then it will be time to pull the honey supers and have an extraction party with other local beekeepers.  This will be sometime in early September. 

-After removal of the honey supers I will offer each honey producing hive a sugar syrup top off.

-The top honey producing hives are also the top varroa producing hives.  I will be performing alcohol washes on about 6 of those hives to ensure the varroa populations are below acceptable levels. 

-In the second half of September and late October I will hit every hive with several oxalic acid vapor treatments.  Although I can’t prove it I don’t think I lost any queens this summer as the result of either formic or oxalic acid treatments.