July

July is many associated with the holiday month full summer. However, for beekeepers this is a turning point. Some call it the beginning of the beekeeping year. This is an extremely important period for bees whose negligence will result in a significant reduction of honey production by the bee family the following year and, in the worst case, the death of the family during winter.

This month should generally be divided into two periods.

The first half

With the lactation of linden on the larger surface of Poland, abundant sources of nectar end. The bee families respond with a drastic reduction in feeding their mothers, which makes it less and less eggs. Old mothers can completely stop brooding. Bee families have a lot of older workers, little young and brood. Bees become a bit more long-lived and the average age of the workers grows. This results in an increase in the aggressiveness of some colonies and the occurrence of robberies. The period of robbery, that is, the alienation of alien bees into the weakened and non-defending colonies, lasts until the occurrence of natural benefits. Poor robbed colonies weaken even more so they can perish. Honeybee families may need to be fed because a small amount of food reported from necritious plants is in many cases too small and families may starve. In extreme cases it ends with their death, illness or escape in the form of a hungry swarm. During the heat, some bees hang before the entrance to the hive in the form of the so-called beaver. Going out to protect the inside of the hive against overheating. In June or May, overheating and other family composition can lead to a swollen, but in July bees are much less prone to reproduction. They are, before the day of winter preparation and dusk, stock consumption, rebuilding of the nest, etc. could have a very negative effect on wintering. At this time of the year, families are neglected, such as the swarms of hungry, sick, or prominent genetic predispositions of the swarm. In WindowBee® hives beginning of July is lazy and care must be taken to ensure that bees have food supplies.

The secunde half

This is the most important moment of the year and how we will bee in this and the following months will significantly affect the wintering of our bee colonies and their fitness for the next season. The mistakes made here will affect the reduced honeybees in the next year, and in extreme cases they may cause the bee to fall out before or during the winter. This is because the wintering bees come from the eggs made by the mother bee from about 20.07 to 10.09. Bees raised from eggs laid before this period before winter will be too old and will not last until its inception, nor will they be prepared to winter physiologically even if they live up to winter. In turn, those brought up from eggs compiled after 10.09 will not be able to make the cut – flight of bee purifying due to low temperature outside the hive. In addition, due to the frequent lack of pollen nourishment – the swells in the nest will not develop a fatty protein body enough to become long-lived and survive well in winter. Therefore, in bee swarm winter bees 90% bee raised from eggs laid between 20.07 and 10.09. These bees receive larvae, milk and honey as heat, they have the time to feed on the larvae after the larvae and in large part are not forced to feed the next generations of larvae. These bees feed on themselves to become long-term winter laborers. Unfortunately due to environmental changes and increasingly poorer vegetation the bees in times when they most need to starve by what as I wrote earlier, the mother less well nourished eggs. WindowBee® observation beehives are equipped with a special beekeeping system in demanding periods. This is done simply by inserting sugar syrup (water: 1: 1 sugar) in an amount of approximately 200-300 ml every other day in a bottle of vodka to the opening of the beagle pod. Gently undo the cap / cap to seal the peak, then slightly blow from the vacuum cleaner with almond oil to make the bees retract. Then place inverted full-filled syrup with the bottle. In the nut you have to make several holes with a nail first. Let us remember to serve syrup at night, preferably at dusk, so as not to provoke the workers to look for food in the hive area. Feeding in the day can lead to robberies if we have weaker families or to a strong bee stimulation and exploration flights around our windows. If the hive is out of the window, let us remember to keep the window open when the light is on. Bees can go out on the sill and see the light of the apartment, they may try to fly in. Therefore, the best time to feed is when the light in the apartment is extinguished. Such subprime gives workers the illusion of mediocre results. It causes them to eat a mother’s milk milk. The queen after several days starts to fold more and more eggs. Let’s try not to overfeed the bees so they do not flood the syrups of the eggs. The time will come when flooding the patches with winter supplies. If the stimulant feeding starts around July 15th, the mother will resume or deepen egg laying until the 20th day of the month, and then we have the first part of winter preparation behind us. If we live in the vicinity of a rich summer and autumn base, it may be unnecessary for the bees to bring in enough food.