MID-JUNE APIARY REPORT-Rev. 1

The honey flow is going full throttle.  Clover, alfalfa, basswood, trefoil, and crown vetch are all in bloom.  The black locust bloom has come and gone.  Strong hives are packing away nectar and capping it once the water content is reduced below 20%.  Yes, somehow the bees know how to gauge the water/sugar content of the honey.  On a few overwintered hives the bees are starting to work their fourth honey super!  The key words in that sentence were “few” and “overwintered”.  Unfortunately, it takes work to get all hives to perform in that manner.

This honey bounty also has its downside.  When the supers are on the hives it becomes more difficult to conduct hive inspections and to apply mite treatments due to the added labor of removing and replacing those heavy honey supers.  The honey flow also urges the bees to reproduce.  Consequently many overwintered hives build swarm cells that a lazy beekeeper like me does not always remove.  Based on checks I have done it appears that up to 6 of my hives have swarmed.  Luckily, I was able to capture and hive 4 of the swarms.    However, since it takes a hive about a month to rebuild its strength, a hive that has swarmed misses out on storing a lot nectar from the honey flow.  I estimate that each swarmed hive costs the beekeeper about 2 supers (60 lbs) of honey.  So do as I say, not as I do.  Inspect your hives every 2 weeks and remove swarm cells if you want to deter swarming.  Most hobbyist beekeepers never realize their hive has swarmed and wonder why “their bees” do not gather as much honey as their neighbors hives.   Our club President has reminded me that with the passing of the summer solstice the urge for reproductive swarming is reduced. 

During the second week of June my apiary was inspected by the Wisconsin state apiary inspector.  His primary focus was in finding American Foulbrood, European Foulbrood, Hive Beetles, and Varroa.  My apiary had no adverse findings.  Mite counts were in the 0-1 range.  He did identify two other minor diseases; “snotty mite brood’ and “Sacbrood”.   These two minor maladies are usually not treated and strong hives will cure themselves. 

Comparing hives is interesting.  Overwintered hives (that haven’t swarmed) are now busy packing away honey.  The hives started with overwintered nucs this spring are also storing honey, but only about ½ the amount of the overwintered hives at this point.  My mid-April packages have, at this point, just put a minor splash of honey into the supers.  The May 1^st packages are still struggling to populate the 2 brood chambers.  This shows of importance of keeping your hives alive through the winter.   Not only does it save you the expense of buying a new package, but overwintered hives also greatly outperform packages in spring buildup and honey production.  The key to winter survival is: (you guessed it) VARROA MITE CONTROL

This past week I treated all hives with a 50% dose of FormicPro in order to keep the mite populations in check.   Note: Formic acid is the only mite control method approved for use while the honey supers are in place. 

The main honey flow will continue in our area for 3 to 4 more weeks.  After mid-July the nectar flow really tails off. 

To take maximum advantage of this flow:

1)      Make sure to add an empty super when the present super is about 75% filled.

2)      Rotate outside frames into the center of the super.  The bees tend to concentrate on the center frames and sometimes do not fill outside frames.

3)      Adding the new super below the filled super (called “bottom supering”). This reportedly stimulates the bees and they increase their honey storage efforts.

4)      Keep removing swarm cells until mid-July.  At that time the weakening nectar flow lessens the urge to swarm.