Beekeeping Diary this September…
It’s that time of year again, as a beekeeper, to take a break after harvesting the honey for the year. But there’s just a few things to do before this as we prepare for winter! Any honey in the supers should have been harvested by now and for anyone using varroa treatments these should have been completed. It’s also a good time to make sure there are enough stores for the bees this winter. Some beekeeper’s feed their bees with a heavy syrup (2lb sugar for every 1 pint of water), but at DrBeekeeper we prefer to keep things as close to nature as possible and prefer to leave some honey filled frames for the bees to enjoy over the winter. Finally the hive needs to be reorganised: the queen excluder should be removed and a super should be placed underneath the brood box. If you have a mesh floor, remove the floor insert to allow ventilation, and close off the holes in the crownboard as these are not necessary for ventilation over winter. And that’s it! You’re ready for winter 🙂
If none of that made sense, but you want to find out more, please visit our guide to getting started with beekeeping.
Coming up this month