Apiary Notes (October 2026) By Wally Thrale

This is the first time that I have produced notes for the month of October and it is due to the weather which is very summerlike.

Visiting one of my apiaries yesterday surprised me in that there was a honey flow. The bees were next to a field of oil seed rape which had buckwheat as a companion crop. The companion is sown with the OSR to mask rape seedlings from flea beetle. The buckwheat is now in flower and most of the hives had a lot of honey in the super. So an extra super was added to each hive as the weather is forecast to remain benign for several days to come.

Giving bees extra super space now is unusual but I don’t want the brood box to become congested with honey thereby reducing the laying area for the queen. If she doesn’t have enough space not enough winter bees will be produced and this can cause the colony to die out over winter.

Last spring there were reports of colonies dying out with plenty of stores but hardly any bees present. So while the daytime temperature is high enough to inspect colonies do make sure the brood box is not becoming congested. Bees are reluctant to draw comb this late in the season so give them a drawn frame or two if there are too many frames of stores. Failing this give them a super frame or two but only if they are worker cells – super drone cells will be counter-productive.

Buckwheat tends to die off when frosts occur but this could be quite a while before the first one. Then it will be time for mouse guards and netting.

Regards

Wally