Marietta Daisies Garden Club
- mariettadaisies
- May 8
- 2 min read
"What's the Buzz"
BEE HIVE
EDUCATIONAL NEWS
Our final installment for the year!
A year-long educational series.
June - July
The main activity honey-wise in Georgia at this time is sourwood in the mountain regions and cotton in the areas of Georgia south of Perry. In some years these flows are significant. Sourwood begins within the first two weeks of June and may last through July. Cotton runs about mid-July to mid-August.
Most beekeepers remove all spring honey before moving hives to the mountains or supering them up for sourwood. Pollination may draw some revenue, especially with cucurbit crops such as pumpkin.
Hot, dry summers can be stressful on bees. The beekeeper can help by providing water in entrance feeders. If robbing gets started in an apiary it is important to tape shut all gaps and cracks that permit foreign bees to harass a colony.
Fire ants may get aggressive in drought conditions, and the beekeeper can respond with mound treatments of Amdro™ or similar fire ant baits. In areas with small hive beetles now is a good time to treat soil surrounding hives with the nematodes, Steinernema riobrave and Heterorhabditis indica, available from organic gardening catalogs.
August - October
Things are winding down in Georgia apiculture, but there are some important tasks remaining. Foremost is varroa mite management.
The beekeeper can discourage varroa mite population growth by using screen hive floors, regularly dusting bees with powdered sugar, keeping hives in sunny locations, and using queen stocks selected for varroa resistance. If in spite of these practices mite levels reach 60-180 mites on an overnight sticky sheet, it may be time to intercede with an acutely toxic miticide like Api-Life VAR™ or Api-Guard™.
Other late summer/early autumn tasks are feeding (with 2 : 1 syrup) if necessary and rectifying any queen problems present in the apiary. Weak colonies should be combined by killing the weaker of the two queens and stacking hives on each other with a slit newspaper between.
Stored equipment can be protected against wax moths by freezing combs and storing in moth-tight enclosures or stacking honey supers in a criss-cross fashion in open sheds. The penetrating air and daylight discourage colonization by moths. Some beekeepers store supers in enclosed barns with a lighted bug-zapper running constantly to kill emerging adult moths. This practice can eventually eradicate moths from the room.
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