Late summer is here, and fall is coming! Honeybee colonies need to have feed and nutrition, a good queen and population of bees, and lack of viruses and pests. In northern PA, we're seeing more varieties of goldenrod blooming, which are providing goldenrod pollen (no significant nectar yet).
- Keep alert for small hive beetles. Once you start seeing them, the easiest thing to do is install oil traps in the upper edges of your hive. Fill them 1/3 of the way full with "baited" oil (can be made at home or purchased). Be careful to not store full or wet honey supers if you have small hive beetles.
- Robbing can be an issue from other honeybee colonies or yellowjackets this time of year. This is dependent on how much nectar is available naturally as well as how many colonies are nearby. Strong colonies can usually handle it, if their entrance is reduced, but small colonies may benefit from either a very reduced entrance or robbing screen. I would also avoid any honeybee supplements that contain lemongrass, as this can attract robbing.
- If your honeybee colonies are light on food, unless you have lantern fly honey coming in right now or you have consistently had reliable goldenrod and knotweed nectar in years past, you want may need to supplement small colonies. It is a mistake to leave them extremely low on food right now and think that you can catch them up in the fall. Lack of food causes the colony to retract and become stressed at a time they need to be maintaining or building bees for winter.
- If you are having issues with your queens, you should address that as soon as possible, either by using a new, mated queen or combining a colony with another (look up "newspaper combine). We are now done selling queens for the year, but there are a few places that still have queens (usually down south).
- If you manage your colonies for varroa mites, this tool may be helpful right now, as it is important to control the viruses carried by the mites prior to fall: https://honeybeehealthcoalition.org/varroatool/
- The final wax dipping day for 2025 will be in early September (based on weather).
- Here are our current prices for supplies: https://walnutfarmbees.com/pages/current-pricelist