Jobs for August

Jobs to carry out this month:

• Reduce entrances to avoid the risk of robbing by bees and wasps. Check hives carefully for gaps and small holes that could allow wasps or robbing bees to enter and plunder their stores: seal them up tightly.

• Set up wasp traps: a mix of beer and jam works well.

• Finish taking off the honey harvest, clean extractor & equipment and store ready for next season. See this month’s extracting honey tip to help.

• Check the bees have sufficient stores, clean & prepare feeders, buy in fondant/sugar/syrup.

• Carry out a thorough disease inspection – ask for help if concerns arise. Check March's bee health tip for guidance.

• Decide on your varroa treatment plan, buy in what you need – and use it properly! You must keep a treatment record. Time your honey extraction before any treatment.

• Unite small colonies if you consider them not robust enough to go through the winter, or if the queen appears to have disappeared or appears weak.

• Start reducing the number of supers on each hive: consolidate or put over the crown board for the bees to move stores down.

• Maintain vigilance for Asian hornet activity, setting traps or lures as necessary. Use the Asian Hornet Watch and inform the club’s AHAT of any sightings.

• Put empty supers and drawn comb into storage protected from wax moth -see October’s wax moth tip to help. 

• Clean and repair equipment before storing and make a list of needs & wants.

 

Frequency of visits – weekly