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Skagit Valley
Beekeepers Association
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Seth Smith,
President
360-770-0481, seth_smith@live.com
Bessie Robar, President (shadowing)
360-303-3515, bessirobar@gmail.com
Elizabeth Pheonix-Agin, Vice President
401-603-6005, homesteadmaya@gmail.com
Rob Johnson, Treasurer
360-770-6170, rsjohnson2u@yahoo.com
Natalie Dougliss, Secretary &
Newsletter
360-630-3063, natalie.dougliss15@gmail.com
Scott Rhodes, Board
360-856-2652, scottrhodes@wavecable.com
Alvin Forar, Board
360-435-3316, alforar@hotmail.com
Brad Raspet, Board
360-708-9424, brad.raspet@gmail.com
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Happy
September everyone! Fall is just around the corner and the
leaves are starting to turn those pretty colors again.
Due to the Burlington Library still being closed, our next meeting
will be held Thursday, September 10th at 7 pm on the Zoom
Meeting app. Brad has already emailed everyone the link.
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The time for honey has now come and gone. I am curious to see how
much honey everyone harvested! It has been quite the year.
Now that the supers are pulled, its time to focus on the health of
your bees going into the later fall and winter months. After the
honey is pulled the beekeeper should be feeding a 2:1 sugar to water
ratio. Feed your bees until they cannot take any more feed. As I will
explain later in the newsletter, the spring worker bees are slowly
dying off and the queen is making her winter bees. It is important
that you feed your bees as soon as you pull the honey away in order
to maximize the use of those summer bees. We have more bees in our
boxes right bow than we will have in the next month. They are at the
peak of their season! It is vital that we maximize the use of the
summer worker bees that we have left while we still have them. It
takes a lot to dehydrate the sugar water that we feed them. If you
feed them too late, the winter bees will have to do the jobs that
they aren't supposed to do. It's better to conserve the energy of the
winter bees' while they still can.
The beekeepers goal is to obtain a heavy top box so that the bees
have enough honey stores to survive the winter. You can check and see
how heavy your top box is by cracking the two boxes with your hive
tool and lifting the top, upper chamber brood box to see if it
heavy with honey. If it is on the lighter side it should be fed until
it is heavy.
There are some occasions where certain hives consume the winter
stores too fast. The hungriness of those hives are in the genetics of
that queen. In this case, they probably won't make it through
winter.
I received a very good question the other day. Someone had pulled
their honey supers off and were concerned that there seemed to be too
many bees to fit two brood boxes. I too observed this when I pulled
my honey. I decided to include this question in the newsletter just
in case new beekeepers or old were wondering the same thing.
Even though there seems to be a ton of bees in the hives, the number
of bees are starting to decrease. The queen has already started to
decrease how many eggs she lays a day, and come October/November she
will stop laying completely. Summer worker bees only live for 6
weeks, and right now they are starting to kick out the drones (if you
see a pile of dead drones in front of your hive, this is why)
and with that some workers due to stinging them. The queen has been
laying her winter bees, so as the summer workers slowly die off the
winter bees and maybe a few drones will be remaining. You might find
that your bees are bearding out the front of the door at night. This
simply means that it is too hot inside the hive, so to keep the brood
at a specific temperature some sleep outside by the door. With this,
there is no need to add a second brood box or split your hives. Each
hive is currently decreasing their numbers. Last year I did see
a hive swarm late summer. Sometimes it happens, but they should not
be swarming right now.
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Although most of the blooms have already run their course, there is
one particular plant that the bees love right now. Knotweed. If your
area is prominent in knotweed, you could try and put a super one of
your hives (if you do, make sure you have not treated yet!). The
honey is bright red and delicious! There is much debate about
knotweed because known to Washington it is an invasive plant and a
noxious weed. Although the Department of Ecology is constantly trying
to get rid of this invasive plant, the bees LOVE the pollen and
nector that is produces and so do many other insects.
Other plants that are flowering right now includes spirea,
sunflowers, garden flowers/herbs and other native/non-native
plants.
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There have been two
more Asian Hornet trapped in Blaine, WA. One was trapped and the
other was reported. Like our club has said before, keep an eye
out around your beehives and watch the behavior of your bees as well
as your surroundings. I have provided a link to the WSDA page where I
have gotten my information.
https://agr.wa.gov/departments/insects-pests-and-weeds/insects/hornets/data
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I feel like I
am always integrating a mite treatment section in the newsletter...
but it is so important! The health of bees should be the beekeeper's
top priority. From good health stems surviving over winter, honey
production, disease-free bees, a clean hive, and so much more.
Treatments such as oxalic acid vapor, Apivar, Apigard, or an oxalic
acid dribble can be used. Make sure to mix up your treatments so that
the mites do no grow use to the treatments.
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There is not much
else to say for September! The two biggest things we should all be
doing in September is to feed our bees and treat for mites. Keep
inspecting your hives every week in a half to two weeks, and observe
them for illness or weird behavior.
Have fun with them! Bees are such amazing little creatures! Have a
good September everyone!
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