A month in the Apiary - July

by Nick Pendelton, Woodside Farm

After last month’s unpredictable weather, June has been ever so slightly less frantic! The Bees seem to be building up slowly, in their hives. Unfortunately, with the changeable weather, brood is lite and they are consuming a lot of the stored honey. I fear the harvest will not be good this year.

This has been a challenging season for beekeepers as the weather to date has meant it has been condensed into a few short weeks. Because of this, swarming has been one of the biggest challenges - it did not seem to matter what I did, the bees still swarmed! I have lost many bees and the hives are weaker as a result. I have managed to collect a few swarms this year (though not as many as last year)., including one that was particularly brutal and nasty. I have committed Regicide and the queen of that hive is no more. To remedy the situation, I have put in a queen cell from another hive. Hopefully once mated she be an improvement.

Despite this, nectar and pollen is coming in, so a quick check is necessary to ensure there is the additional space required to lay down stores. Overall, the number of bees will begin to decrease because of the Queen’s diminishing rate of egg laying. She knows Autumn is coming.

As happens every year, the wasps have started to arrive and are hanging around. They are seriously detrimental to colonies, especially small or weak ones. I am not a lover of wasps; however, it is important to remember that they also play an integral role in our pollination and ecosystem so we do not want to kill them, but I will need to make sure that the bees are the strongest they can possibly be so that they are able to defend themselves. I have started helping them out by narrowing the entrance to the hive.

In August I will have to start looking forward to putting the best to bed for the winter! As far off as that sounds, it is important to plan ahead to ensure the bees are in the best condition they can bee to go through the winter. This will mean making sure everything is queen-right, uniting any hives that are weak and making sure varroa treatment is carried out. Varroa is a parasite that lives on bees and will ultimately destroy the hive.