BOMMER'S BEES: Bees ready for winter during the last days of summer

A bumble bee flies toward a flower.

Are the beekeepers not wearing a veil to protect their eyes as we’ve always been trained? You need to remember if you get stung in the eye, you will probably lose sight, and I do know of a man earlier this summer in a greenhouse environment where a bee got behind his glasses and it got under his eyelid. He ended up in the hospital to get it removed; he was fortunate as he did not get stung.

We also train that you always light your smoker in this area. We mostly use pine straw in lighting smokers so there’s an abundance of fuel in our area. Bees are generally so docile that we don’t need it but if something goes wrong and they’ve had a bad day or they’ve gone queenless, they may become very testy when you lift the lid, and then it is too late to go back and light a smoker. Now you’re going to learn a lesson if the smoker was not lit.

The smoker will use pine straw smoker fuel in this area for the most part, so it’s not cost prohibitive. We teach to always like the smoker. Even though bees are very gentle, things can happen — so always light your smoker. Your smoker safety is always a main concern in this hot, dry weather, as that smoker is hot and can easily cause a fire. So if you’re a beekeeper, be safe and make sure the smoker is out when you put it back in your vehicle.

At this time of the year, things are changing in the hive, the bees are laying eggs for winter, which need to live six months as opposed to the 45 days for the summer bees. The creator of the bees — whoever you believe that to be — has the bees change their entire fat structure.

In these hot, dry days of summer water is important to the bees so they will take water from any source. They use the water to cool the hive through evaporation. Worker bees will go out, fill their honey stomach with water, bring it back and deposit it at various locations around the hive, which will maintain high temperature even if it is over 100 degrees outside.

This is the time of the year that yellow jackets start to show up. They’ve been in your gardens all spring, and you probably never saw them. They were eating aphids and spiders and just doing their thing. They started out with one queen, and now the hives have grown and the food supply is declining so they’ll come to your deck since they are protein-eaters. Your barbecue, such as your chicken leg, is protein and they will forage your street trash and take what they can get from beverage cans. They’ll get quite aggressive and then the bees will get blamed when they sting somebody.

A yellow jacket has a smooth stinger and it will generally hit you three or more times, whereas a honeybee can only sting you once. If you find a yellow jacket nest in the ground, there are a number of pesticides that are recommended for getting rid of it.

Just just as a note, Aug. 19 was National Honeybee Day in case you wanted to do a late observance. This date has been established because of the importance of bees to our food supplies.

No cotton honey is starting to come in at Allendale Correctional. They will harvest some of it, but the majority be left as food for the bees through the winter months. We have had exceptionally high survival rates, mostly because — I believe — plenty of honey was left on the bees. Their bees are checked on a regular basis so that we note small problems before they get to be a big problem.

Now is the time to go out and look at the early fall, late summer blooms. Sumac will be blooming by the time this article comes out. If you carefully go into some areas where it is blooming and look at the blooms you will see native pollinators. You spot things on the blooms that you may not have seen before, but they were here before we got here.

The next thing to bloom will be the short golden rod. It will get to be about knee-heigh and has a yellow bloom and you will see native pollinators all over it. Everyone is familiar with the big wispy ones that show up later, but this one really provides a nectar support for these young bees, and many people have never seen them.

What should beekeepers be doing at this time of the year? We need to monitor and sample for mites so that we know what mite levels as we will to treat to keep them as healthy as possible. This is important to remember as we are going into winter and these bees will to carry us to spring. We want healthy hives coming out for next spring so it’s up to us to do our job.

Are the beekeepers not wearing a veil to protect their eyes as we’ve always been trained? You need to remember if you get stung in the eye, you will probably lose sight, and I do know of a man earlier this summer in a greenhouse environment where a bee got behind his glasses and it got under… Read moreBOMMER'S BEES: Bees ready for winter during the last days of summer

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