This month in the Apiary – June
- Extract Oil seed rape before it sets in the comb
- If you remove supers make sure there is enough stores in the brood box and feed if necessary
- Make sure the queen has space to lay and the brood box doesn’t fill with stores
- Swarming has been increased this year as the weather was so variable keep checking for queen cells
- If you have done an artificial swarm watch for the new queen to establish a good laying pattern
- Do a full health check by shaking the bees off the frames ( not with a queen cell waiting to emerge)
- If you think the varroa load is high think about drone removal with an uncapping fork and look for varroa uncap a 10×10 group of cells
- Make sure you have enough jars etc for your honey crop
- Think about your varroa treatment now so as not to be caught out
- If you have collected a swarm use them to draw comb for future use
- Swarms can be treated for varroa while they are broodless, you can use oxalic or a frame of open brood from a colony. once sealed remove and destroy
- If the weather becomes stormy or forage ends colonies can become defensive watch to see if behaviour improves if not consider re-queening