Otter Jotter | 1979, Summer Solstice & Pollinator Week

When do you start a blog? Beekeeping like many endeavors never has a start or finish to the year. So as Kenny Loggins sang “This is it”

The picture shows a frame of newly capped honey that we will be harvesting in the near future. But with harvesting comes the task of extracting the honey from the comb, but more important the task of managing the bees for the future and next year's harvest.

The Summer Solstice brings a slowing of our spring nectar flows here in central Indiana and the hive populations start to draw close to their maximum numbers. The Summer Solstice is our longest day of the year allowing more daylight for the workers to forage for nectar and pollen. As the days shorten after the Solstice less resources will be brought in to support brood rearing and the queen will slow down her egg laying from its peak of 1,500 to 2,000 day.

Successful hive management for strong bees next spring starts now. Queens will be replaced, mites must be monitored and managed and hives will need to be prepared with the stores they need for winter. 

Last it Pollinator Week! 

Check out Pollinator Partnership at Pollinator.org for ways to support all pollinators, not just honey bees. You may not wish to manage bees, but there are ways we can all help. Remember one out of every three bites of your food has to bee touched by a pollinator. Pollinator Partnership offers some great resources for everyone from farms to home plant selection guides. 

So check out Pollinator Week at pollinator.org and come back to follow our adventures in bee keeping here at Otter Lake Honey Company.