June Bee Management: Three Things to Know

You split your hive(s) in late May, and now you - best-case scenario -  have a strong and rapidly-expanding bee population.

Don’t jinx it!  June is not a time to be opening up your brood chambers for an inspection. There’s a real danger of crushing your queen and losing this year’s honey production.

Another important consideration - June is generally a time of changeable weather with extended runs of cool, wet and windy weather. No-Fly days, in bee parlance. Make sure there is a pail feeder in your hive, or the queen will quit laying out of concern for dwindling food resources in the hive. And every egg laid in June is crucial to this year’s honey production.

Third - now is the time to prepare for adding “supers” or boxes on top of your hive. Any two-storey overwintered hive with a vigorous colony will need three supers and 30 frames, plus an excluder to prevent the queen from heading “upstairs.”  Excluders allow regular bees to move into the new frames and store honey, while keeping the larger-sized queen out. Your supers need to go on by June 25, definitely by the July long weekend before your other summer plans take priority.

Choose warmer, dry days when the bees fly freely and are in a better mood to let you do this work.

Timing is everything, and Hiveworld.ca has what you need now, from bee suits to feeders to boxes and frames and more. Any order placed before 5 p.m. will be shipped from Edmonton the same day. And if a competitor has combined product and shipping prices less than ours, we will beat them by 10%.

Hiveworld.ca is an Alberta-based supplier of everything required for successful beekeeping in Western Canada, whether you are a beginning hobbyist, interested in supplementing your business revenue, or a commercial operator.

We put education first - you need to know how a bee colony works to enjoy any level of success. We will answer your questions, show you how things are done, and later in 2018 will offer a variety of courses and hands-on demonstrations to make your beekeeping as rewarding as it is fascinating.

We’re Alberta-based. We know the country, and we know bees.