President’s Ramblings – August 2024

Firstly apologies to those who thought they had missed my ramblings for July – I
forgot to write anything!!

Here we are in the second week of August. At last it feels a bit like summer. I
have a question which I wish I had the answer to. Where have all the butterflies
gone? This last couple of weeks we’ve had a few Large Whites on the brassicas, but
so far I’ve only seen one Red Admiral and one Peacock. There were bumblebees
early on in the year, but the numbers now seem to be lower than normal. I heard an
article on radio 4 the other morning that wasp numbers were well down this year.
The only insect that anyone has commented to me that might be doing well this
year is the horse fly, and they’ve certainly been biting me when I’ve been out and
about.

Vegetable growing has been more problematic this year – I think things are
about 6 weeks late. We’ve just had our first French beans, and they were planted
out the last week in May. In fact the only thing that has done really well in the
garden is slugs!

Enough of the moaning – what about beekeeping? As I don’t have any bees
now I’ve no first hand experience of what is going on with the bees this year. Back
in June some commercial beekeepers apparently had colonies with no honey, and
my guess is that locally this year will turn out to be one of the poorest crops on
record.

It’s time to start looking and planning for preparation for winter. For
beekeepers, unless there is a source of himalayan balsam or heather nearby then
the honey crop will be all but finished and August is the ideal time to do the main
Varroa treatment. Some beekeepers will disagree with me on this and do their
treatment in September, but remember that September is the month when the
majority of the winter bees will be raised. Immediately prior to treatment the Varroa
number will be at their highest level all year and may well be about 2000 mites/
colony and doubling about every 3 to 4 weeks. The logic therefore is that if we delay
treatment until September there will be twice as many mites and as a result twice as
many worker larvae weakened by the mites. Also as there will be no drone larvae at
this time all the Varroa mites will be in worker cells.

Treatment in August, with a treatment that has only a 7 day duration, will
mean that all the brood raised from here on will be virtually Varroa free. Compare
that with a treatment starting mid September, with a duration that might be 28
days. This colony will not be almost Varroa free by mid October. The number of
winter bees weakened by Varroa will be higher and this colony has a higher chance
of not coming through the winter. I’m not going to advocate any particular
treatment, but bear in mind the timing. Apiguard and Formic Pro (formerly known as
MAQS) are both acid based so the mites will not become resistant Apivar and
Apistan will result in resistant mites over time. Whichever treatment you choose,
timing is important, so we should really monitor mite levels throughout the season
and treat appropriately.

Treatment choice and timing should be a priority over honey production. We shouldn’t try to fit in treatment to suit the honey flow. It’s probably better to forgo some honey to ensure the bees are kept healthy.

I remember when we first got Varroa the recommendation was to treat with
Apistan in September. We still lost colonies over winter – they died in Feb or early
March and appeared to be Varroa free. The reality of what had happened was that
treatment, although it was over 99% effective, was too late and the winter bees
were weakened such that they didn’t live long enough for the colony to survive.

Earlier treatment would have ensured healthy bees going into the winter. I hope that
makes sense, and that is why I now recommend earlier treatment.

Once the Varroa treatment is complete we can think about feeding for winter. Either use a thick (2:1 sugar to water) sugar solution, or a ready made syrup such
as Invertbee.

The important thing is to get the Varroa treatment and the feeding completed
by late September or early October before the evenings get to cold for the bees to
work on processing and sealing the winter stores. When feeding always feed all the
hives in the apiary at the same time. Do the feeding in the evening after the flying
has finished as this will reduce the chances of robbing. Always keep the entrance to
the hive small, especially when feeding, as this will help to keep out wasps!

One last thought on Varroa treatment is the use of Oxalic acid (Api-Bioxal).
This needs to be given during a broodless period to be fully effective, so we do it
late Dec when there is no brood.

That’s it for now. I’ll try to remember to do some more notes for September,
with some hints on final preparations for winter.