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While you're enjoying your busy bees, the weather, and summer specialties like gardening and lemonade, it is time to start thinking about fall in the apiary. While August is often a month of reward in the apiary- as you see the results of your nurturing, feeding and checking- it is not the time to sit back and enjoy the hives of bees, brood, and honey. The books I have read say to start feeding your bees with sugar syrup in mid- August. Well, I put two honey supers on and I am not feeding until the fall. I want honey and I am holding out for just that. If I start to feed, the honey supers will fill with water and the honey will be thin. There should be enough goldenrod and wild aster that they can rely on. We had some rain yesterday, and they are calling for more tomorrow. Your on your own honey bees.

I know overwintering success requires a strong, healthy colony of bees. The bees of mid-August are the workers feeding the bees that go into winter. You want to help them be a vibrant and industrious as possible, to ensure they take full care of the yet-to-be bees who will carry the colony over the winter and hopefully emerge next spring. With all that said, I am still waiting for my honey to come to me in the fall. Am I stubborn or what! I have a goal and that is what I am shooting for. HONEY!