As with all things, it’s important to plan your work and work your plan. At the Cook-DuPage Beekeeper’s Association, one of the highlights of the meetings is reviewing the list of activities that should be scheduled for completion during the month. The list sparks additions, debates and some lively conversation on different ways of managing your honey bees.
September
The second honey flow to help build the colony up begins in late August and continues into September. With the arrival of fall and the coming of winter, it’s time to:
- Remove the last of your honey supers for extraction. Be sure that your hive has proper stores for the upcoming winter and early spring by making sure 60 – 80 pounds of honey are available. You may need to leave a super in place if the lower hive bodies are not filled.
- Inspect for diseases, mites and the quality of your queen. If necessary or planned, re-queen in early September.
- Finish up your honey extraction and store the supers for winter. You can reset the supers on the hive over the inner cover for a day (put an extra inner cover or screened cover on to prevent robbing) to let the bees remove any left over honey into the lower bodies. Be sure to remove the supers after one day. Then inspect the extracting supers for any painting or repairs that need to be done, note any frames that will need to be replaced, moth proof the supers and store them away until the spring. IMPORTANT NOTE paradichlorobenzine (PDB) moth nuggets (Be sure you use the appropriate moth crystals. A specific type is needed in order to assure future safety for your bees and your honey consumers). Another option is to freeze the frames to kill the wax moth larvae
- For colonies light on honey stores, begin feeding sugar syrup . The fall mixure is a 2:1 ratio of sugar to syrup (5 lbs of sugar to 1 quart of water).
- If you are chemically treating your bees you can begin in September to medicate them through feeding and/or other methods.
- Review the over wintering hive bodies and supers and move frames of capped honey towards the edges and bring in the partially filled frames to the center to allow the bees better access at filling them up. CAUTION Be sure you don’t interrupt the brood pattern.
- Combine weak colonies that do not appear to have enough honey or bees to survive the winter.
- If you are planning on moving your hives before winter, now is the time to do it, so they are in place before the bees begin to cluster.
- Keep marketing your honey. September is one of the largest honey marketing months and a large amount of honey is sold at Farmer’s Markets and fall festivals. Check with the National Honey Board for any promotional items that are available.
- Sign up for the Cook DuPage Beekeepers Annual Banquet that is held in October.
- Submit your photo for the 2011 Bee Culture Beekeeping Calendar, entries must be submitted by October 1.
Visit A Beekeeper’s Calendar for the monthly activities listed for the year. It lists all the monthly activities we have published as well as the upcoming month so you can take advantage of any spare time this month for getting a jump on the next.