Being that we’re past Solstice and Independence Day, we’re officially deep into summer. I’m always taken aback a bit when I see a graph of the life cycle of a summer hive and realize that as we humans are gearing up for our peak summer activity, the bees are beginning their slow glide into Fall. It takes some attention to recognize their cycles are not quite in sync with ours. Our days leading into June have been a mixed bag of cool, warm, hot and rain. As always, we’re hoping for wonderful weather to compliment blackberry blossoms and (selfishly for myself) linden tree bloom which are in abundance in my neighborhood.
Our June meeting featured Dr. Ramesh Sagili, who talked about Varroa management. Our club has committed to continue Zoom meetings through the rest of this year but we’re going to start work parties at our club apiary towards the end of July. The socialization will be so welcome! We’re also looking forward to getting a detailed read-out of our Honeybee Survey results from Dr. Dewey Canon. Initial readouts were that our hive losses were fairly consistent with last year’s results. PUB wishes you all a fun-filled summer and may your honey supers be filled early this year.