June 2025

June Newsletter from Alan Riach

Grumpy Bees
There have been many reports of grumpy bees in the last fortnight. When very strong nectar flows suddenly come to an end, this always upsets the bees big time. Before you decide on mass queen replacement, give them a chance to settle down. I know this can be difficult with bees following you and upsetting neighbours. Apologise to neighbours and explain to them that this Spring has been extraordinary in terms of the strength of flows and the inevitable tetchy behaviour which that produces when the strong flows end abruptly. By all means deal with any colony that over a period of time is refusing to settle down. Removing the queen and allowing them to make a daughter usually achieves calming as the daughter will produce more calming pheromones. She will also have a different father so if there is any genetic bad temper involved it will also deal with that.

The June Gap
Having experienced unusually strong flows, we are likely to shortly experience a June Gap – a period of up to a fortnight when there is a complete dearth of nectar and pollen. You can usually determine whether there is a June gap by watching the beehive entrance – if there is little activity, no pollen being taken home, then it is likely that there is a dearth of flowers. In this case and especially if the weather is inclement, or very dry, the bees may run short of food – a full sized colony should always have sufficient stores for 10 days about 5kg (11lb). A very full BS deep frame holds about 2¼ kg (5lb) of food, so at least 2 or 3 full frames of food (usually the two end frames). Normally there would also be some food in the super.

Very populous colonies are especially vulnerable when a June Gap strikes, so if you have a colony with 8 or 9 frames full of sealed brood. that will be a lot of young mouths to feed in one- or two-weeks’ time.

A honeybee needs about 10 mg of dry sugar per day, so a colony of 50,000 bees would need at least 0.5 kg per day (say 0.6 kg honey or proprietary feed). If the gap lasts for 10 days that is 6kg of feed just to tide them over, more if they were also still feeding brood.

If the June gap is severe and the weather is inclement, perhaps it is a new colony getting established, then check your bees for food and if in doubt e.g. the super is empty and hardly any food in the brood chamber, then remove the super(s) and put on a rapid 2 litre feeder of summer sugar syrup (0.8 litre water to 1 kg sugar – equal volumes water and sugar). Strong syrup or proprietary feed can be used as an alternative (0.6litre per kg). As an extra precaution you can put on 2kg of fondant. If you are short of sugar but have remnants of fondant left over, you can make summer syrup by heating up 1.4kg of fondant per litre of water. Heat to near boiling to kill off any pathogens that may be present in the fondant remnants. Take care when heating as hot sugars cling to skin and cause bad burns. Supers must not be in place when feeding syrup as the bees may store it in the super and selling honey containing sugar is illegal. See Precautions below

The June Gap has been appearing earlier in recent years and has been becoming more severe.

Beware the June gap and never be reluctant to feed your bees in summer if necessary.

Feeding should be done in the evening to reduce the risk of robbing.

Swarming
As we get into July there will be more swarming, Matthew Richardson, who receives swarm reports says that July is often a peak swarming time for Midlothian. Bees short of space are more inclined to swarm - Remember the 70% rule – If the bees are over 70% of the brood frames, add a super. if they are over 70% of the super, add another super. During a strong flow of nectar the bees need space to store it and space to process it (smearing films of nectar in the surface of cells in order to dry it).

Old queens are more likely to swarm, as the amount of calming queen substance given off by a queen halves with each year of her age.

Signs of Swarming
“Primed” Queen cells will contain an egg, or young larva & royal jelly. At this point the bees have decided to swarm and will normally do so when the first queen cell is sealed at day 8 after the egg was laid.

Action to be Taken – Artificial swarming
Knocking down queen cells and leaving it to your next 7 day inspection will NOT stop swarming, for the
following reason.

Its Saturday, you have found primed queen cells and you knock them all down. The bees will panic and start creating new cells, but more importantly will create emergency queen cells on worker cells containing eggs or containing larvae up to 3 day old. If created on a 2 day old larvae, that cell will be sealed on Tuesday or Wednesday (on day 8 after the egg was laid) and the swarm will set off – 3 or 4 days BEFORE your next weekly inspection.

Once you see primed queen cells you must take action by artificially swarming. See the video clip at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KE5vFLf0G0&t=10s
Alan Riach  June 2025