In case you haven’t noticed, it’s June! And that means the summer solstice occurs later this month (June 16th). From a beekeeper’s perspective, that marks the height of the bee season. e hive populations will be approaching their greatest numbers and the nectar flow will also be at its maximum. The blackberry bloom is our major source of nectar, unless you happen to live near an agricultural field, like meadowfoam, or someplace in the city with a lot of bee-friendly flowers. But the nectar flow period is of relatively short duration for us. After the solstice the bees will be gradually on the downturn as they prepare for another winter.

So now is when you should be putting on honey supers (assuming that you don’t have them on already). The bees need an ample source of nectar, not only to produce honey, but very importantly, to provide the energy needed to draw out new comb. If you have frames of drawn comb from years past, that is a great resource to put in your honey supers. It saves the colony from a lot of the work needed to produce new comb. If you only have a few frames of drawn comb, you can “checkerboard” the drawn comb frames in between the new frames to encourage the bees to draw out the new ones. Also remember that if you are using any varroa mite control methods, you need to read the treatment label carefully to see if it is EPA approved when collecting honey for human consumption. Only a few treatments are authorized.

Happy Beekeeping!   Norm

 __________________________________________________________