A member organisation representing beekeepers in the
County of Northamptonshire

MONTHLY TASKS - JULY

In the early part of the month check for swarm preparation but after that leave the bees alone.

Make up a nuc to take through winter. You need a queen or queen cell, bees and brood. Two combs of brood, one hatching and one unsealed, and a comb of stores can be kept in a brood box or Nucleus hive. If you have to shake bees from these frames to ensure the queen is left behind you can re-bee the frames with bees from supers.

Queens can be raised using the Miller method of obtaining queen cells.

Supers that are full can have the honey extracted. Where bees funnel the honey into the central frames these frames can be moved to the outer side of the box, placing the empty frames into the middle. A super can be filled in less than one week with a honey flow.

Monitor the varroa mite fall under your varroa floor. Carry out a test for pyrethroid-resistant mites. Plan your varroa treatment and buy products needed.

Re-queen over defensive colonies.

If the weather is poor and the bees are unable to fly for weeks, check the stores remaining for the bees (supers and brood boxes) and if this is below 7 kg feed with a gallon of 50% sugar syrup, (having removed the supers).

Purchase your sugar requirements for winter. Do you have enough bottles and 30 lb plastic containers for your hoped for honey yield.