Beekeeping

July 2009

This is the month of the main honey flow. Hopefully, those part full frames will be capped from edge to edge, ready for extraction. The weather forecasts sound quite promising, which should be good news for those looking for a decent crop of honey.

It is probably sensible to remove frames of capped honey by the end of July/ beginning of August, to avoid the ivy honey which tends to granulate in the frames. Don't forget that bees can be aggressive when capped frames are being removed. Use Porter bee escapes to avoid disturbing the bees too much: this does facilitate easy removal of complete honey supers. If you are looking to remove individual capped frames, do this as quickly as possible, placing the frames into a spare super, which should be removed from the apiary as soon as possible.

Store the supers in a warm place and extract as soon as you can. After extraction, return the frames to the hives for the bees to clean them up.

Spring examination

Useful advice on cleaning smokers.

In the news: Cooperative support for research into Colony Collapse Disorder