It's busy, with tasks like wasps, extracting, mite counts, mouse excluders, and requeening, all of which require a lot of thought. They will all result in a good season if dealt with in a timely fashion...
Wasps have been and still are the big problem for most of us this year, traps are the only partial solution.
We can certainly reduce the numbers against what seems to be the never-ending invasion.
Unfortunately, if we do nothing, hives will be lost.
You simply cannot have too many traps up, ensure you check the bait daily.
Shop our Wasp Traps here.
Extracting is hard work, made easier with the aid of an extractor, but of course, this is not essential.
Cut comb is a wonderful thing, enjoyable even when you get down to just the wax that’s being chewed, a bit like gum, but the nutrients held in the wax are thought to be higher than those held in the honey itself, even if it is harder to access!
Shop our wide range of extraction
equipment.
Honey off and a mite count is essential, we should never treat prophylactically, although after a busy season in a big hive, it would be hard to imagine the hive didn’t need some intervention. This is what contributes to a healthy hive and sets it on the right track for winter and a good start to the spring. Not all treatments are the same. Certainly, the most popular one from our sales is Formic Pro, our beekeepers think it's great, a one-week treatment with one of the highest efficacies.
Buy Formic Pro here.
Mouse guards, it is hard to imagine that after you have taken the supers off, that a time exists when it is too early to apply the mouse guards. The mouse wants to set up home early, get comfortable before the winter starts or earlier if the farmers have been cutting their crops.
October is too late, what is too early after the supers are off, its hard to imagine.Requeening: Its been a tough year for the colony, hard work if your queen has just completed her 2nd year, its worth considering a replacement.
Our plastic mouse guards work a treat, order yours here.
There are several reasons for this, firstly a new queen will produce more eggs in her first year than a 2 or 3 year old, this could be vital for the survival of the hive over winter, then we can look at supersedure at the start of the season in 2026.
An older queen is most likely to want to swarm, this is natural, but with few drones about and those that are around are immature, you are setting yourself and your colony up for a difficult spring, involving, in some cases, of a total colony collapse. A drone layer will ruin the start to the season quicker than a swarming queen.
Start your re-queening journey and order a Queen today.