Things to Bear in Mind for this Time of Year
Happy Labor Day.
Your bees have been laboring for us all season. Now is an especially good time to evaluate how we can help with that. August and September are critical months for setting them up to succeed over the winter.
There are lots of pertinent tasks this time of year …
Queenright
A colony has no future without a queen; always verify that they are queenright. I’ve discussed this extensively in previous blogs. Email me if you want more details. Remember, you don’t have to find the queen! But you must find recent evidence of the queen. (Larvae, eggs.)
No larvae? No eggs? No queen? Obtain a queen asap if you have enough bees to sustain her. Or, combine with another hive if that’s an option. If you need a queen, you can find local queens at www.northernbeenetwork.com.
But It’s Scary!!
During my third year of beekeeping, I had three amazingly productive but highly annoyed and practically aggressive colonies in September. At the time I thought it was just because they were so strong, and because they remembered all the honey I stole from them.
Now that I’ve learned to better sense (and pay attention to) a colony’s temperament, I suspect in all three of those they swarmed (because I didn’t give them enough room when they needed it) or I killed the queen when pulling honey, and they weren’t queenright. (By Halloween when they were dead or nearly so, I knew something had gone terribly wrong.) I just stayed away from them in September and October, instead of verifying that they were queenright.
If you have a colony with a real bad attitude, get in there and figure out why.
Yes, it can be quite scary. I can laugh about it now, but a year ago a newbee asked me to help him with his very aggressive colony. They’d stung the *&*# out of him and he was appropriately nervous about getting to the bottom of the four box colony. I agree to help. We double-socked, duct-taped any possible entry points, wore long sleeves and pants under our suits, had two smokers going, and … they still “greeted” us—stingers ready to launch–when we were within 20 feet of them. It was intimidating.
We opened it up and started going through it, frame by frame. About the second box down there were multiple bees trying to sting through my gloves, and several dozen banging into my veil. I said something to the newbee, but he didn’t hear it. He was easily at least 50 feet away. Understandable, but …
Just take a deep breath and do it. If your colony is unusually annoyed, they’re probably trying to tell you something.
Mite Patrol
Do you have an issue? See previous blogs for determining if you do. If you decide to treat, September is often the month when that begins. Assess and make your plan.
Production?
We’ve been blessed in this area with recent rains, so most of our hives are again bringing in lots of nectar and pollen. We find ourselves still adding room for them to work.
Some hives, depending upon the type of bee most likely, are already backing off production. The queen isn’t laying as much, and they are backfilling the nursery with honey … not building more comb.
And some hives aren’t thriving at all, and we’ve found lots of beetles and moths in the upper boxes. If a colony doesn’t have the workforce to keep those critters at bay, reduce the space they have to patrol … and try to figure out if the workforce is naturally waning (the queen lays less going into fall) or is there another reason for the decline.
Raiding
If you have a weak hive, yellowjackets, hornets, and other honeybees will attack and clean them out, often within hours. This is a growing problem this time of year as those insects are at peak population.
If you have a hive that isn’t 2-3 boxes by now, reduce the entrance to ensure they can guard against raiders. I recommend you feed challenged hives now as well, but use internal feeders so you’re not attracting those raiders.
Feeding
We still have a couple colonies in a single deep. They will likely get combined with another hive by the end of September, but—I’m not ready to throw in the towel on them yet. We’re feeding them 1:1 sugar syrup to assist their efforts. Some of them are really sucking it down; some of them are ignoring it. Giving them the option I think is helpful. For those that are taking supplemental feed, I’ll probably switch to 2:1 sugar syrup come next week. That’s more easily converted to honey, I’m told.
Where’s the Goods?
Honeybees are “chimney eaters” in the winter. They start at the bottom and work their way up. (Their cluster generates heat, which softens the honey above them.)
I’ll discuss winter prep more in the months ahead, but as long as you’re in your hive, check out that bottom box. Thanks to beekeeper Kevin Hale from the south for putting this so well: “Sometimes you will have a top box full of brood and honey and the bottom box is completely empty. I will reverse this hive every time. Bees don’t like to fill an empty bottom box in the fall; therefore it may enter the winter that way if you don’t fix it. With an empty box on top the queen will come up and lay and the bees have a place to store nectar and pollen they will get from Goldenrod and Aster this fall.”
Some colonies have three or even four boxes by now. Get in there folks and make sure the bottom is being used. If not, move that box of empty / near-empty comb to the top.
In summary
All of this is my opinion and a reflection of my experience. I continue to be educated by bees … and laughed at by them as well! I love your calls and emails, it helps me learn. And yes, I can even help you go through your scary, mean hive. But you can’t run off on me! J