This Month in the Bee Yard

In July, honey supers should be placed on the hive for Sourwood flow. Around Asheville, you have to watch the Sumac bloom because you’ll want to keep it separate from your Sourwood.

Make sure you have drawn comb if the honey super is placed directly over queen excluder. Bees will not draw out foundation place directly over queen excluder.

Make plans to extract spring honey so you will have enough supers for sourwood. This means making sure you are on the schedule if you need to rent the club extractor.

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Purchase or have ready supers to add as needed. Drawn comb can all be put on at once, and foundation should be placed on just as it is needed to prevent them chewing it up. Put foundation on when the super below is about 75% full.

Make plans for treatment options for Varroa mites after the Sourwood flow ends. If you are using chemicals, know which ones and what restrictions and requirements you will have. Purchase ahead of time.

Splits, one effective method of controlling Varroa, should be made immediately after Sourwood flow ends in late July or early August.

Leave enough honey on your hive to get through the winter, at least one super of honey.

Late July and early August do mite counts, with sugar roll or 24 hour mite drop count with screened bottom boards. This will assist in knowing if you are at the threshold to treat, should you be using chemical treatments.

Late July to early August, harvest Sourwood supers from hives. Make sure as much as possible is capped. If not capped, you can dry honey in the frames with a dehumidifier in the same room, but must be careful to not get it too dry. 24 to 48 hours usually does the trick and a refractometer test for moisture content is needed to make sure it is below 18.6 percent.

If re-queening hives, plans should be made early in the month to order queens so they will be available at the end of the honey flow.

Please visit www.wncbees.org for additional information.