Beekeeping: Late Season

In recent times, beekeeping seasons have changed for me. Only ten years ago, the idea of swarming in April was preposterous, whereas now it’s normal. The so-called ‘June gap’, a period of little forage between spring and summer blooms, has compressed to almost nothing. For the last few seasons the majority of summer honey is in by now (July), the exception being colonies with access to fields sown with ‘CAHL1: Pollen and nectar flower mix’ or similar.

Sure, the Himalayan balsam will follow, but I have never had much of a crop from that, and prefer to let the bees store it for winter. There is no heather in my area, and normally the ivy flowers too late for the bees to prosper from it. However, last season my bees did bring in some ivy forage, providing more evidence of the timings of the beekeeping calendar shifting earlier.

This season, of course, the gorgeous weather has helped with our summer crop. Supers that were extracted and returned to hives after spring were soon filling up again with bramble and clover nectar, followed by lime and sweet chestnut. But, I have to say, those fields of flowers sown by farmers under the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) are a wonderful thing. The bees just love them, and many of these mixes stay in flower into late summer.

Things to do:

1) Make some more queens while drones are still about

2) Harvest and extract summer honey

3) Make up nucleus colonies using excess bees from production colonies and newly made queens (or cells)

4) Maybe do some mite washes to see how high varroa levels are

5) Treat large colonies with formic acid and smaller ones with thymol

6) Feed lots of syrup to nucs

7) Feed pollen substitute and syrup to colonies that do not have access to late season forage, after a period of a few weeks with little or no brood.

That last one, feeding protein and carbs through what can be dry and barren weeks, might not be to everyone’s tastes. Based on last season, which certainly had a long and dry end to the season in my area, I don’t think the bees do very well without feeding. A dearth will make them go into ‘winter mode’ (very little brood, enlarged fat bodies, reduced flying). The trouble is, they have to last from August to March like that, which is an eight month ‘winter’. I think that’s too long.

I want queens to lay plenty of brood in September/October especially, so that colonies are strong for the colder months. They need pollen for that, and a pollen substitute (or supplement) may help. A brood break in August for a couple of weeks is probably a good thing though. Some colonies seem to do that, others not. But, in general, I like to see strong colonies going into winter. They tend to live, whereas the smaller ones struggle, and living is a good thing. Late season nucs need plenty of feeding to ensure that they draw out new comb, giving space for the queen to lay plenty of brood.

We like to treat colonies in late July/early August with Formic Pro. If any queens go missing, and some usually do, there is still time for requeening. They may be able to successfully supersede but I would rather use a mated queen if I have any. Some people use one pad for a week, then another, which is less harsh. We go gung-ho on the two pads at once, which I think gives the formic acid best chance of penetrating sealed brood cells.

As for feeding colonies in autumn ready for winter, I think many inexperienced beekeepers go a bit crazy with that. I leave them some honey, and top up with maybe a 14 kg can of 2:1 syrup, but that’s normally fine for the winter. I very rarely need to add fondant in early spring, and if I do, it’s usually on nucs. Our syrup generally contains thymol, which prevents fermentation but, equally importantly, seems to help keep nosema under control in colonies. I just follow what Peter Little taught me, and what Manley used to do, and the bees seem to overwinter well on it.

Oh, and this season we had a little fun taking a few colonies to some borage in Lincolnshire. It seems to have gone well, and we will be bringing them home in a week or two. Who knows, perhaps we’ll do that more often? It was only six colonies, as we don’t have a trailer and six to eight is about what we can carry in our van (with supers). More on that later. ◼