Beekeeping Basics
Wellness Checks for June
Bees don’t need a calendar to tell them that summer has arrived. The air is filled with the hum of bees leaving and arriving at hive entrances. Bees work from early morning to sundown, and are so busy that inspections can be done with little worry about angering them. It is after the nectar flow that bees get defensive.
While bees are busy finding nectar and pollen, a beekeeper must be aware that a number of things could be happening to bees and equipment. One task each beekeeper should be doing is called a “wellness check.” There are a number of stress factors that can affect the well-being of a colony of bees. It is important to spot these factors early.
Let’s start with hive support
There are two things sometimes overlooked about hive stands: How much weight will the stand support, and how high must a person reach to remove honey supers? Over time, supports tend to sink into the ground, making the hive stand unstable as in Photo 1. Photo 2 shows a much more stable setup.
Swarming is still a possibility in June
Frequent checks for signs of swarming are necessary. It is normal on hot days to see bees hanging around the entrance of a hive. However, when bees are clustering outside the hive entrance in early morning (Photo 3), it may be a sign that the bees will swarm.
Placing a super on this hive will not prevent it from swarming! A wellness check in this situation requires more than just a walk-around inspection. Generally, it is not good to tear into a hive during a nectar flow, but if this colony swarmed it would lose a large portion of its foragers and a good queen. This is an opportunity to make a split and still get a honey crop.
G.M. Doolittle used a method of caging the queen within the hive and cutting down the swarm cells. His method included going back …
