Umm... and the rain will apparently be back by the weekend...with a little sun here and there (as well as the occasional haze and smoke). This has been a very wet season so far, with temperatures swings from hot to cooler than usual. Despite all of that, the season is still moving along and the bees must be managed:
- With the continued wildly fluctuating weather and rain, keep an eye on your colonies to make sure that they have enough space and are not creating queen cells during the lousy weather.
- Watch for small hive beetles. This is the time of year where they start showing up, particularly across the southern part of PA. 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).
- Our local PA queens are available between now and August. For Carniolan, we are filling back orders from last fall, but those will be caught up in a week or two, and we do also have some PA "mutts" available each week as well (they are queens made from cells in the colonies that were from our bees, have good laying patterns, but not verified to be from our breeder queens). Shipping available most weeks (except for extremely hot weather), or pickup at Carlisle or Nicholson, PA. We try to post queens available on the website, but if you have a specific question or need, send us a message.
- We have fresh (immediately frozen) spring bee pollen in stock now. We don't expect to have as much later in the season as other years (again a limited amount this year because of the weather).
- Spring honey is available in 1lb jars this Friday. Larger sizes and cases expected by June 20. (this has all been slowed down by moisture content and a slow season because of the rain). We have flavored creamed honey, hot honey, and espresso honey available.
- The self-serve Red Stand will be back open by the 20th with spring honey, but only VENMO is accepted (cash is still accepted on Fridays at the farm shop).
- Here are our current prices for supplies: https://walnutfarmbees.com/pages/current-pricelist