AUGUST 2002
August - the last month of hive honey production.
The begInning of August may seem a strange time to be thinking about Winter
but there are only really 4 weeks of honey producing time left before
the end of the season. The honey must be removed before the cold, September
weather comes.
On Sunday, 12th August John and Paul started preparing the 3 small hives
not producing honey for Winter. It will make the September feeding time
alot easier and quicker if these small hives are all finished. Strips
of Apistan were added to the 2 swarm hives and Hive 2. We also placed
a feeder of sugar syrup solution - (2 lbs. sugar to 1pt. water) - on each
hive. Over the next fortnight these feeders were topped up regularly till
each hive had had about 8 lbs. of sugar.
Feeders on
Apistan sheet in place to protect against Varroa
Later in August John and Paul moved the last partially filled frames of honey from Hive 1 into the two hives still in honey production so that it could be fed for Winter.
Full frames of capped honey were removed so that the bees would concentrate
on filling the others up. It was then that Paul had to remove a "frame"
of wild comb which the bees had formed in a gap between two frames.
Paul cut some of the comb so we could turn it into "comb" honey.
The entrances of the hives were narrowed as robbing wasps were beginning
to appear and the bees were also robbing each others hives, quite a problem!
In late August Paul and Lynn inspected the hives at Flaxton. They are
not producing any more honey now so we must remove them soon.
Our two hives in the Flaxton Apiary