September 2025 in your Central Oregon Apiary

Doesn’t it seem like normally, we start off September a little cooler than 90’s.  But it does look like it’s cooling to a more normal temperature later in the month.  I hope you and your bees have been dealing with the smoke ok.  If you were near the Flat fire, I hope it all turned out ok.  It sure must have been tense.

This month the debate starts as to whether we should trim the tomatoes so the green ones ripen, or leave them as is, in hopes that warmer weather this month will promote more fruits…….and we’re all getting ready for the 1 or 2 frosty nights later in the month.

The natural flowers are winding down, with a little sage brush and rabbit brush still remaining.  In town, the flowers are still in full blossom, albeit with later season blooms….so there is still forage coming in.

As pointed out last month, many of us try to pull the supers mid August, primarily to give the bees time to “top off the hive”, or to backfill the hive with honey, as the queen slows down her laying and needs less brood area.  If you weren’t able to pull earlier, or opted to pull the supers later, you’ll want to evaluate the stores in your hive, and perhaps feed 1:1 sugar syrup until either they are pretty full (75% or so) or the weather gets cold (mid October).

If you pulled your super(s), when should you extract.  Generally, the sooner the better.  If you wait until January, they may crystalize and you won’t get anything out.  Also, as the saying goes about molasses in January, so goes honey.  When it’s a lot colder, extraction can take FOREVER.  In processing your honey, the important part to remember is IT IS FOOD.  My usual thought pattern is to treat it as I want someone else to if I were to be eating it.

Remember that we are allowing/encouraging the bees to create their Witner Bees go get them through the winter, and successfully started again in the spring.  This takes lots of bees, well fed bees (particularly protein) and healthy bees.  If these requirements aren’t being met, fix the ones that aren’t.  If you’re short of bees, add some brood/shake some bees from another colony or your spare parts nuc or combine two weaker colonies (the weak colony is unlikely to get much stronger at the time of year that they should be slowing down).  You’re already making sure they’re well fed.  Healthy, implies primarily mites.  They should be going into the winter with as low a number as you can manage…..I like 1% or less of mites.  Now that the super is off, and the temperatures are dropping, think about using a different control method (remember IPM (integrated pest management)).  If the numbers are high, think about a “knock down treatment”, perhaps a formic acid treatment, or Apivar.  If the numbers are low, but not low enough, perhaps Apiguard, Apilife Var or Hopguard or multiple treatments of oxalic vaporization.  Please see the HBHC tools for varroa management for timing, requirements and effectiveness.

There are many questions this month about wrapping (insulating) hives.  Although I don’t believe it hurts the colonies to do it in September, it may get in the way of your inspections/treatments.  If you want to wrap your colonies (and there are many ways and levels to do it) and you have a trip, coming up in October, then September might be the way to go.

Finally, if you’re colony is a bit weak and you have strong colonies nearby, keep an eye out for robbing.  This is hard to stop once it starts, so prevention………Keep your inspections short, clean up honey and other products, if it doesn’t cause backups, think about an entrance reducer.  Along the same lines, yellowjackets are also preparing for winter.  If you are concerned that they’re “harvesting too many of your bees, think about trying one of the non-toxic controls (commercial trap with attractant, chicken skin under a stick over soapy water etc.)

Happy Beekeeping and wishing you the best for your harvest.

Allen Engle