Beekeeping Tips for June

1. The honey flow begins winding down by June. The main honey flow will end in June or the first part of July. The honey harvest can begin in June as soon as you have frames of honey that are at least 3/4 capped. Plan to harvest honey when the weather is dry and warm.

2. There are several methods for removing full supers from hives:

   • Use a fume board to chase bees from supers. Fume boards work best in very hot weather.

   • Use a bee escape board beneath supers. This method requires more than one trip to the bee yard to remove supers.

   • Brush bees from the combs one comb at a time. This is a time consuming method and can anger bees.

   • Remove supers from hives and blow bees out with a “bee blower”.

   • Smoke bees from supers.

3. New colonies can still be started in the month of June, but they will need to be fed more than those started in April because the major honey flow is normally over.