BILL.HEARD
House Bee
Down in this part of Devon the flow has basically finished, I have been to several apiaries today and have put all entrance blocks back in place on large colonies. Small nuclei I have reduced in some cases to one bee way.
Up until last week wasps were not making there presence know, now they are out in force and if we have a long autumn they could be a big problem this year.
One year in an apiary over the winter period I killed around 60 hibernating queen wasps under the hive roofs. This did nothing to the number of wasps around the following autumn. So put your wasp traps out if it makes you feel better, but it won't markedly reduce the number of wasps in your area.
Keep everything spotless in your apiary, pick up wax pieces of comb and keep all wet supers under cover in a bee/wasp-tight area. If you have to start feeding be careful not to spill syrup.
Once robbing starts its not easy to get it to stop especially for the new beekeeper who may find it all rather daunting.
Up until last week wasps were not making there presence know, now they are out in force and if we have a long autumn they could be a big problem this year.
One year in an apiary over the winter period I killed around 60 hibernating queen wasps under the hive roofs. This did nothing to the number of wasps around the following autumn. So put your wasp traps out if it makes you feel better, but it won't markedly reduce the number of wasps in your area.
Keep everything spotless in your apiary, pick up wax pieces of comb and keep all wet supers under cover in a bee/wasp-tight area. If you have to start feeding be careful not to spill syrup.
Once robbing starts its not easy to get it to stop especially for the new beekeeper who may find it all rather daunting.