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.
