July in your Central Oregon Apiary
Wow, went from comfortable to “too hot” in just a day or
two. In town, the blooms are picking
back up after the June dearths. Out of
town, the flows seem to be dependent on what weeds are around right now. As you see flowers blooming with honey bees
on them, think about writing them down in you log book, or on a calendar.
Couple of things to remember when working with your bees in
hot weather. First of all, YOUR health is
paramount. Make sure to keep hydrated. Try to stay out of the sun when it’s very hot
(above 97 or so) and take breaks (Yes
Mom). Then remember, when it’s hot for
you, it’s also hot for the bees, and they don’t have a window air conditioner. Their air conditioner consists of hauling
water back to the hive a tenth of a drop at a time and evaporating it like little
insect swamp coolers. You may see a drop
in foraging as the bees are spending a lot of time transporting and evaporating
water. Might be a good idea to provide
more water than usual. Some folks like
to put a piece of plywood or cloth above or on the top of the hives just to
keep the sun off and others (there are strong and informed differences of
opinion about this) like to put either a ventilation hole in the upper box, or
a tiny sliver under the outer cover (in a Langstroth hive) just to help with
air flow. Finally, when it really hot, I
find the bees aren’t as amenable to inspections and I don’t want to mess up
their air conditioning, so I tend to leave them alone until the temps moderate
a bit.
Once the temps have cooled a bit, keep in mind this month is
the main honey flow for the last half of summer. I generally want my bees to be as hard at
work as possible collecting nectar, and realizing that I disrupt the hive while
doing inspections, I try to keep inspections to a minimum during the
month……..unless there is something that really needs fixed (mites, queen,
diseases).
One of the reasons we do so much mite mitigation in spring
and early summer, is that in the middle of summer, with higher temps and supers
on, your choices for mite treatments are greatly diminished. If you do have a colony that’s way too high,
seriously consider treating them, but realize you need to trade honey
production for your colony’s long term health.
After these initial hot days depart, we can start getting
back to enjoying the summers we live here for.
Happy beekeeping and stay cool.
Allen Engle
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