Hi Everyone!
We are in that magic time of year when it’s easy to be a “good” beekeeper. All of our neighbors’ flowers and shrubs are blooming, it seems! The bees are going full bore. It makes you wonder whether they realize that 90% of their resources for the year are brought in between early April and end of June!
As much as we need bees to pollinate countless plants around us, bees need us. Except in specialized situations, such as deep forests, they cannot survive more than a year or two without beekeepers. So, let’s unpack that a bit. If they have loads of brood, that may mean they have loads of mites. There’s no way to find out without testing. That means a sugar roll or an alcohol wash. Ok, you may say, I already figure that they have mites, so I treat anyway. Good. The job is half done. How do we know your treatment has been effective? This is an important question. The answer to that is to do a sugar roll or an alcohol wash. Having the skill to do either, or hopefully both, is essential for your beekeeper repertoire.
We are starting to see some honey being stored in the upper boxes, even though we had such a cold and blustery May. It always raises questions about when to extract. Beekeepers take honey any one of a number of ways, but I will urge you to do this- wait until the summer dearth is over. If you take their surplus in June, and then we have a windy and rainy two weeks in July when they can’t forage, they will feed what they have to their young and then literally starve right in front of you in the summer.
Let’s not forget that a strong hive is likely to swarm. If you see queen cells that are occupied, they will swarm. Now is the time to make a split, equalize with a weaker hive, or make a little nuc to hold in reserve. When you take bees out, there is more queen pheromone to go around and they will lose the urge to swarm.
We have some events to look forward to attending this month. On June 15, Hive Inspection Workshop #3 will take place at 11:00 am at Silverman’s Farm. That would be a good snapshot of what to expect to see from a package or overwintered hive.
And then on the evening of June 24 , we will hold our most well-attended event of the year, the Annual Pot Luck Supper and Silent Auction. The banquet is a fun social gathering in itself. It is also a terrific opportunity to acquire good used equipment at a steep discount.
See you there!!
Regards,
Andy Hatt, President BYBA