July 2025 Newsletter

This month is all about the nectar flow! Basswood, clovers and birdsfoot trefoil have been blooming like gangbusters and our colonies have been steadily filling supers between rainfalls. Remember that rain can wash the nectar out of flowers and it takes a day or so for that nectar to return. Our colony populations peak this time of year so hopefully your colonies are strong and bringing in lots of nectar!

With all this nectar coming in, you should be making sure that your bees have enough space. If you are managing with 3 deeps, you can put supers on if the third deep is fully drawn and you start to see any capped honey. If you are managing in 2 deeps, you likely have supers on at this point. A good general rule is to always make sure the bees have two empty supers on until the main nectar flow is over. A strong colony under ideal conditions can fill up two supers in one week. If they run out of space, they will start putting nectar below in the brood nest. It’s possible for them to move some open nectar out of the brood nest when given more space, but it’s better to try to avoid this situation. If you are seeing nectar in the middle of brood frames in the bottom box, you can do a reversal to move open space from above for the queen to lay in below. Besides giving them space for honey, we want to make sure the queen has space to raise a good winter population. It is unnecessary to put empty honey supers below full ones, the bees will find the space and it only makes it harder for us to lift those boxes.

Giving the bees space is our best tool against swarm prevention. Divided colonies and packages can still swarm if they get too crowded. If you see large/sealed queen cells, they are deep into the process and culling those cells will not stop them.

You should have your entrance reducers out and corks removed from any box that is more than 75% full of bees. This helps with ventilation and forager traffic flow. We’ve seen lots of bearding bees on the fronts of hives on these hot days and even some washboarding. Honey bees are excellent temperature regulators and they use water they’ve collected and their wings to fan hot air out of the hive. If there isn’t a natural water source close to your apiary, be sure to keep a dish of water with gravel to land on filled on hot days. It’s tempting to open the top of the hive to help cool them, but this interrupts their ability to control the air flow.

As always throughout the bee season, you should be checking your mite levels monthly. Do a mite test by taking 300 (1/2 cup) bees and doing an alcohol wash or powdered sugar roll. Be sure to take bees from within the brood nest and ideally from a frame with some capped pupae and lots of open, older larvae. Remember, mites reproduce on the pupae so testing from a honey frame will not give you an accurate number. Also, double check for the queen before taking your sample. An alcohol wash is the most consistently accurate test, but a powdered sugar roll can be accurate if not performed on a humid day.

If you decide to treat, always follow all label instructions(they change frequently) including if you can treat with supers on. For instance, the newer product Varroxan can be used with supers, but must have a box between any strips and any supers for extraction. Always test post-treatment to see if your treatment was successful. For more information on newly available treatments, check out this publication from UMN Extension: Recent varroa mite treatments not yet included in the Honey Bee Health Coalition Varroa Management Guide UMN.

If you are planning to extract any early honey, make sure the moisture level is below 18.5% or it eventually ferments.

Again, if you have any questions or concerns, contact us at the [email protected]. Photos can be really helpful if you see something in your colony that is hard to describe. Until next time, happy honey making!

Jenny