Many of us are in a summer nectar dearth or are fast approaching one. Several things happen to your bees when days are hot and forage is scarce. Here is a list of management ideas that will make the summer less stressful for you and for them.
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- Honey bees short on water may decide to try the neighbor’s swimming pool or bird bath. Since this can put a strain on the relationship, put out some water for your bees. A bird bath with rocks, a bucket with a wet rag, or a drip irrigation line can all be used to slake the bees’ thirst.
- Your bees may seem testy or even aggressive when you go near. Even though your colony was docile as a newborn babe up till now, it may suddenly seem hostile. This is natural when supplies of food and water start running low. Don’t go routing around inside your hive looking for what’s wrong. The way they see it, you are what’s wrong. Give them some space during this time, and they will resume their sweet dispositions when the days cool.
- Beware of robbing bees. Bees from robust colonies may decide that the easiest way to stock the pantry is to steal supplies from a weaker hive. If you see evidence of robbing—bees wrestling on the landing board or fighting in the air—reduce the entrances of weak hives. This may seem counter-intuitive during a hot spell, but it could save your colony.
- Provide lots of ventilation. Bees cool the interior of the hive by fanning, but for fanning to work, the air needs a place to come in and a place to go out. Since you may be reducing your entrance to prevent robbing, it is extra important to use a screened bottom, a screened inner cover, a slatted rack, or a small upper entrance.
- Robbing bees are not the only critters on the prowl this time of year. Hornet and wasp populations peak in the autumn just when the honey bees are having a tough time finding forage. These predators love a weak honey bee colony because the adults can get honey for themselves and nice juicy bees for their offspring. Be careful not to spill honey near a hive and do not use entrance feeders. Small drips can bring hoards of predators to feed on your bees—another reason to keep those entrances small.
- Beware of the Varroa mite population. With diminishing forage and shorter days, your colony will raise less brood and evict the drones. Overall, the colony size will decrease. The Varroa mites, however, remain strong. Without drone cells available they will use worker cells, and since the colony has fewer brood cells than before, the mites will cram themselves into the remaining cells. Varroa can easily overwhelm a colony this time of year, so it’s a great time for a sugar roll and mite count.
- Bearding is common on hot summer days. Although new beekeepers often confuse bearding with swarming, they are not at all related. Bearding bees are merely gathering outside the hive to keep themselves cool and to lessen the heat load on the inside of the hive. The best you can do for them is make sure the hive has good ventilation. Other than that, don’t worry.
- Experienced beekeepers have been through summer dearth before, but many newbee colonies are lost during the first nectar dearth that comes along. Why? Because the colony seems so robust and busy, it is hard to imagine things could change that fast . . . but they do. So be on the lookout for signs of summer stress and take steps to help your colony through it. A little bit of prevention goes a long way.
Rusty
HoneyBeeSuite
Your Sugar Roll link in the Verroa mite graph did not load. I’d love to see it. Let me know.
Thanks for the heads up, Michelle. It should be working now.
Thanks for the run-down on heat issues. One of my hives was taking the brunt of the afternoon sun, so I propped a long board along its side and that seemed to reduce the bearding a bit. Thankfully our heat wave seems to have subsided (here in Rhode Island).
I’m working thru my 3rd year of beekeeping. Started out spring with 3 hives and now have 7 hives, due to splits. 2 of my hives are very small, residing in 2 medium size hive bodies and I worry that the population isn’t large enough to bring in enough stores before winter. Normally I don’t need to feed with sugar water, but I think these 2 hives need it. Should I start now? If I give them 1:1 sugar water, will this encourage the queen to continue to lay?
Sheila,
That’s a complicated question. Yes, you can definitely feed sugar syrup now, but be sure to use an internal feeder so the predators don’t detect it. But my opinion is that 2:1 should be fed if you want them to store it for winter. Will 1:1 encourage the queen to lay if fed in the summer? I’m not sure that it will. Other factors besides the specific gravity of syrup are at play here, especially the decreasing day length. The bees know the days are getting shorter and they are preparing for winter; I think that will hold sway over the specific gravity of the syrup. Put another way, I think it may have some effect, but not an overwhelming one.
Thanks for the pointers Rusty, great info!
So would one also be able to deduce that any nectar collection and related honey stores may be at their peak and would begin to decline from here due to a nectar dearth / extended dry spell?
If such a dry spell continues for another week or so should one ever consider starting to feed again, albeit in a method not to attract robbers?
Most places in temperate North America have a spring nectar flow, which is the main one, and a secondary flow in the fall after the weather cools down. The major nectar dearth is mid-summer. There are many fall-flowering plants, including those in the aster family such as goldenrod, asters, dandelions, sunflowers, etc. which can produce good crops of honey.
You can always feed syrup, but you need to take off your honey supers first so you don’t get sugar syrup in your honey. Personally, I take off my honey supers at the end of July (next week!) and leave them off till next year. During August I treat for mites with ApiLife Var or HopGuard. Then I let the bees keep anything they store in the fall.
There are many ways to do it, not one “right” way, but that is the system that works for me.
Excellent list, Rusty. Thank you!
Is there an easy way to tell from seeing the bees at the entrance if they are bringing in honey? I swear sometimes they seem to be coming in “heavy” so to speak and other times they come shooting right into the entrance.
Billy,
Don’t know if it’s “easy,” but you are right. Bees with a full honey stomach can look bloated; they take on the shape of a blimp, more or less. When the light it right, you can almost see through them because their bodies are stretched.
Can you recommend plants to include in a bee garden to help get them through the summer dearth?
As a first-year beekeeper, I didn’t assimilate the concept of a ‘nectar dearth’. Then, a week and a half ago, I found my hive nearly starved out. All comb completely empty of honey, nectar, pollen, and brood. Dead bees everywhere, inside and outside the hive. Those remaining didn’t have enough energy to fly. The queen was still alive, and with a steady supply of sugar syrup she’s laying again, so maybe there’s hope for them.
Mike,
I wonder if they got robbed as well? Sounds suspicious.
Hey Rusty,
How about a bump for this discussion. I’m in the Northwest, and it seems like our flow is beginning to abate, albeit a couple of weeks early. All of my 10 hives are in suburban settings and so there seems to be always something around. I just don’t want to miss the window of harvest. Last year, I didn’t recognize it and at the end of July, had heavy boxes of perfectly capped honey, and at the end of August had a bunch of empty supers… That’s where we are at now, but two weeks early…what do you think?
John,
Even down here the flow is ebbing, and I’m planning on pulling all my supers this week. I usually do it at the end of June or beginning of July anyway, so it seems about normal this year, although drier.
So yes, I would pull them. The danger is that you might need some of it later if the summer and fall are so dry the bees can’t store enough for winter. So just keep some in reserve (frames or extracted) so they don’t have to live on sugar all winter.
PS: We’re essentially at sea level in Tacoma/Puyallup.
I am concerned about one of the three hives I have here as a hobby keeper. Have for 2 or 3 weeks seeing a large amount stuff falling through screened bottom that looks like yellow or orange wax or cappings. Also I put a beetle swat catcher in the bottom of hive. I caught 4 or 5 beetles. Today the swater catcher had some kind of larva , a dozen or more in it. Don’t know what it is, can you suggest what I should do for the hive? I know summer slowdown has caused a decrease in activity but the other hives have not shown the same symptoms.
Thanks H Gragg
Sometimes a large amount of wax debris on the bottom can be a sign of honey robbers. I would look at the combs of honey. If they have ragged edges, it is a sign that some other honey bees, probably from your other hives, are robbing the honey of this hive. The other possibility is that the colony is out of food and they are eating their own stores. You need to check.
As for larvae living in hive debris, it could be many different things. Hive debris breeds all kinds of creatures, so I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Just empty the trap.
It is August 14th I am a first year bee keeper in Virginia. I have two hives. They were thriving storing pollen and honey. Now they are nearly out of honey and pollen stores. I have huge populations of bees in both hives. They seem content with the lack of honey and pollen. The combs are empty and look perfectly in tact as if no robbing is occurring. It appears the queens are just over laying and no one is storing for the winter. I don’t want them to starve. Should I feed them honey, sugar water or pollen patty? Thanks for your suggestions!
Karen,
It sounds like they ate all their stores during the summer dearth. They will have to store a lot between now and winter, so I think feed is a good idea.
I live in Ca. My bees have become super aggressive in the last 2 wks. Some flowers are blooming but the bees seem really hungry. So I have increased sugar to 2/1 now.
Howdy Rusty,
Newby here. First week of August 2019 & have gone through two weeks of hot weather high nineties & several days over 100 F. I believe there is a nectar dearth on & would like to add two screened bottoms. Each hive got its own bucket of water with fabric ladder draped over the side. It appears there are other bees, possibly feral, drinking this water as well. I’m trying to come up with a way to work on my hives without providing access to robber bees. Did a sugar roll at the beginning of the week & there were robber bees all over the hive, after I tried adding a top screen for additional ventilation. After an hour I replaced the migratory top board. The robbers continued hanging out the last few days. On UC Davis site they mentioned an 8 foot, 4 sided screen that one apiarist would use in order to prevent robbing while accessing the hive. I would like to recreate something like that. Would I have to keep the top covered? ie. open to the sky? Or could I use a mosquito net hung over the whole shebang? Thank you for any & all help.
“Would I have to keep the top covered? ie. open to the sky?” Not sure what you are asking.
Sorry Rusty, that was poorly written. I’m trying to come up with a way to protect my hives & minimize robbing. The screen that I read about was a description only; I have not seen a photo for it. It was an apiarist or entomologist at UC Davis that used an,” 8 foot tall, 4 sided screen.” I’m assuming therefore it would have been open to the sky. My question to you is, if I made a screen, do you think it’s necessary to have a roof cover or fifth side to keep bees from entering from above? Or is it best left open to the sky so that the bees can fly out? Do you have any suggestions?
Thank you & much appreciated!
Carine,
Well, I’ve never seen such an arrangement, but robbers tend to follow the scent, which is why robbing screens work so well. So I suppose a top would not be necessary. But just a wide board leaned up against the front of the hive works too, so it really doesn’t need to be fancy. To make life easy for the bees and beekeeper, I would stick with a standard robbing screen like the ones made by BeeSmart designs. Once I started using those, I stopped worrying about robbers.
We just had 42 windows replaced in our home. I have 42 large window screens in excellent condition if anyone wants them for free to make a little screen room for your hives.
We live in the Pacific Northwest and are new to bee keeping. We have a very active top bar hive that has been busy gathering food and producing lots of bees. It is now the first of August and we are in what I would consider a dearth. There is very little if any food sources available to our bees other than garden flowers which they are essentially ignoring. We have a small amount of Ivy that is yet to bloom, but that will not sustain them for long.
I would much prefer to provide the colony with some food supplement at this time rather than allowing them to eat all their hard earned honey before winter. Would either fondant or pollen patty be appropriate or should we wait until they have consumed their own honey. We have not nor plan on taking any honey from the hive this year.
Your opinion is much appreciated.
Chloe,
If your bees haven’t stored enough food to get them through the winter, now is an ideal time to feed them so they have the opportunity to store the feed for winter. Just be careful about robbing bees and wasps. Often, they will smell the feed and come from miles around to get it. So reduce your entrance if you can, and be on the lookout for robbing activity.
Hi Rusty, thanks for this excellent resource you have created!
I am a new beekeeper in Central Oregon. It’s mid-August; I have one hive; just requeened successfully after weeks of seeing almost no brood; the bees have plenty of stores but not enough room for the new queen to lay. They were spending too much energy building comb, so I thought I’d help them out with an in-hive feeder using 1:1 for comb-building. That was yesterday morning. In the afternoon I chanced upon them being mightily robbed. I quickly stapled a screen around the front and the robbing stopped. In the evening I removed the screen and placed a screen only at the entrance, leaving an inch of entrance unscreened.
That’s all fine, but I worry about the next couple of days when I won’t be around to observe. I’m thinking of removing the syrup and placing it 50 yards away to divert robbers from the hive. But still worried about the hive itself. They were doing such a good job of bringing in pollen for the new brood…
What would you do in this situation?
Thanks!
Marty,
We are in a summer nectar dearth, so any opening of the hive or feeding of bees will definitely attract robbers. You say they have plenty of stores, so I would probably wait until later in the year to add a supplemental feed. Even if the feed is 50 yards away, you could be setting up a feeding frenzy that may well lead to your hive. If it were me, I would leave the robbing screen in place and not feed until the weather starts to cool.
Hi there. One of my hives is very strong and has become aggressive since I harvested about 3 weeks ago; the bees appear to be bearding but the temperature is not really that warm yet. They did this throughout winter as well, the front of the brood box and the first super has been black with bees for days to the point that strands of bees are falling to the ground and have the appearance of a small swarm. After harvesting I checked the brood box, everything was neat and tidy and in order. I had previously seen SHB in this hive but there isn’t much sign of it now. I changed their hive from wood to high-density foam about 3 weeks after harvest and they’re still at it. We’ve had thunderstorms over the last 2 days and they still stay outside. I have 3 full-size supers on, they have filled more than half of the 1st new super and started on the 2nd as well, I put the third one on at the same time to give them more space and air. They have insulation, space, food, water. The spring climate is perfect by day and cold at night. I talked to an 80+-year-old beekeeper who says he hasn’t seen anything like it really before but I’m sure someone has. I did find 2 empty queen cells in the brood box. They may have had a small swarm. I went to lunch one day and when I came back an hour later a small swarm had moved into a swarm trap I was preparing in my shed about 15 yards from this hive. Should I split them?
Best Regards, Robert.