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To use a footballing term this year has been a season of two halves. Up until the middle of June things looked dire and the prospect of feeding colonies was a serious consideration. But then the weather changed and it became ‘summery’. Reports from various beekeepers suggests there has been a good crop of honey. To use farming parlance ‘the harvest was better than last year but not as good as next!’.

But now we must prepare our bees for winter. Varroa treatment should be well under way if you intend to treat before winter, especially if using Apiguard which is temperature dependent. Around the beginning of September I normally start my winter feeding but carry out a quick inspection of each colony to see if it looks viable. If there are several frames of brood, some of them containing slabs of sealed brood, I consider the colony in good shape. If it looks dubious the best thing to do is unite it elsewhere. If there are a couple of colonies that are like this I unite them leaving the queens in each box. Let the bees decide which one they prefer. This only applies to colonies where there are no obvious signs of disease. It may also be necessary to unite colonies if increase has been made earlier in the year due to artificial swarming. Ideally the old queen should be killed and her brood united onto a hive with a current year’s queen. Younger queens generally survive the winter better.

My preference for feeding these days is to use Ambrosia as mixing large quantities of sugar is very time consuming. This is an inverted syrup whereas bees need to invert sugar syrup which is more work for them. Ambrosia also keeps for at least a year so can be used in the spring if colonies require a top up before nectar is available. The aim is to feed individual colonies as quickly as possible, providing around 20 to 22 kilos of stores for a National hive on a single brood box.  If using brood and a half or a larger brood box then more stores can be provided. But remember to remove the queen excluder if using brood and a half. I’ve seen a queen die because the bees were in the super with the stores but they could not feed the queen in cold weather. If there are frames with just foundation after the artificial swarm process, bees are reluctant to draw comb late in the season if the frame(s) are by the wall. Move the frames with foundation to either side of the nest which encourages bees to draw them. Don’t place them in the centre of the brood nest as nights can become cold in autumn and brood could become chilled.

An important point to bear in mind is not to overfeed as this will restrict comb space for the queen to lay. The winter bees are raised during the autumn months and if brood frames are full of stores there will not be enough bees raised to maintain the colony over the winter.

The Association stocks Ambrosia (or equivalent) so see the latest price list for location of stockists. For autumn feeding I always use syrup not fondant. Fondant is used when the weather is cold, mainly late winter or early spring, as bees won’t process syrup at this time but are happy to tuck into a block of fondant.

My aim is to finish feeding around the end of September as the ivy starts flowering later in the month. Bees don’t seem to overwinter too well if they have a lot of ivy honey in the brood frames. So feeding syrup before the ivy flowers prevents bees storing this honey in the brood box.  After feeding I leave one super on the hive for bees to store any ivy they manage to locate which is then removed before winter.
Mouse guards should be added when the first frost is imminent. Placing them too soon can remove incoming pollen from foragers which is not helpful. It is also a good time to added netting to keep out woodpeckers. Doing this job in midwinter in bad weather is not a pleasant task.

How the weather differs each year. Looking at the notes for last August it was rain we had to contend with causing the cancellation of the Centenary picnic. By mid June this year it looked that feeding colonies would be necessary and the prospect of a summer crop looked remote. How matters can change so quickly. Supers have filled, been extracted and are filling again. And it seems that the honey flow is not over yet but I suspect it will be soon.

Managing nucs this summer has been challenging as they have brought in so much honey they have run out of space for the queen to lay. So it was necessary to remove frames of stores and replace with foundation to provide laying space for the queen. Nucs need checking on a weekly basis to ensure they are not starving, bringing in too much honey or becoming overcrowded. But producing nucs each year is enjoyable and an insurance for winter losses.

As the honey flow is not over yet I have changed my varroa treatment regime. Originally I decided to use Apistan this year (last year it was Apivar). Because I will not be I a position to remove supers until late this month I have decided to use Formic Pro this year. The reason for this is I want to remove as much of varroa as possible before the winter bees are produced, from September onwards. Using a six week treatment such as Apistan or Apivar does not fit this timescale. These products should be used as early as possible in August. This also applies even more so to Apigurad which requires a minimum temperature to be effective.

Do consider these points when deciding which treatment to use. But it is vital that colonies are treated for varroa otherwise the health of winter bees can be compromised which can then affect winter losses. So do treat as soon as supers are removed and do not treat with honey present. Final point on treatments – don’t use the same product each year, especially with products such as  Apistan and Apivar. The mites can develop resistance over time and make a product useless which is what happened with Apistan some time ago. Ring the changes!

And then onto feeding bees in a few weeks’ time. I normally start at the beginning of September and aim to finish by the end of the month. These days I use an inverted syrup as dissolving large quantities of sugar lost its appeal a long while ago. Inverted syrup feed is easier for the bees to process and it is more concentrated that homemade sugar syrup. It will also keep until next year.

After feeding an empty super is returned to the hive in case there is a heavy ivy flow.

There will be a Zoom session next Tuesday to chat over any of these points as well as anything else you wish to raise. Unfortunately I am not able to attend but John MacDougall tells me he is ok to go ahead with the session. Look forward to seeing you at the next one.