Rain, Rain, Rain means Feed Your Bees

Feed Your Bees

Hey Seattle area beekeepers! As you all know, May and June rain has made it a bit hard on the ladies. Why? Because the rain has been washing away all the nectar, which is especially troublesome as the blackberries are in full bloom, typically the largest nectar flow we have.

Because of this, we are feeding our colonies that have little to no honey reserves. Believe it or not, bees can starve to death during odd weather patterns like this, or more likely, robbing behavior will begin to happen. This can affect many colonies in the area, and even cause premature death of a once healthy colony. The good news is, rain means more flowers, but until those come, feed.

Also, we are now past the Summer equinox, which means that bees are now moving into winter prep. They will need to start building honey and pollen reserves, more so than before, so it’s time to feed your bees. We use a special mixture when feeding, which can be found HERE on a previous blog post.

This has been a tough year, but keep watching what the bees are doing and how their needs are changing and you will be fine!

Next up, mite treatments. We will post about our technique soon.

Thanks
Jason