What Now? September

In September, the queen will be laying eggs for the “winter bees.” Forage in September is primarily goldenrod and aster and, in some areas, Japanese knotweed. By early October flowers are done until maple and willow bloom in March and apple and wildflowers begin in April. Hopefully it will be warm & dry enough for the bees to fly. See also video: Colony Management Autumn from Dyce Lab for Honey Bee Studies at Cornell University

Robbing:
1. Many beekeepers this 2026 August have seen robbing behavior due to the moderate drought although the fall flow is “ON”.
2. DO NOT harvest honey during a robbing event or be sloppy about harvesting in any way that may insight robbing.
3. Take precautions and get your entrance reducers on and turned to the smaller openings.
4. Deal with any opening that put an extra stress on the colony to guard.
5. Consider open feeding to distract nosy neighbors from wasps nest or other colony you see sniffing at the seems of your hives.

September Inspections:
1. See where your bees are at with winter stores and preparations on a sunny day when the bees are busy on fall flowers.
2. All foraging for pollen and nectar in New Hampshire ends in early-mid October.
3. September may be the last month temperatures are warm enough to inspect down to the brood box.
4. September is the last chance for a varroa mite count in time for any treatments to be effective. Remember “drop” count thresholds (20-50 a day) are different than sugar shake or alcohol wash thresholds (3 mites per 100 bees).

Hive Consolidation: Removing empty boxes and frames for winter
1. September is usually the last month to rearrange honey frames as needed for any hive consolidation plan you may have for winter.
2. Bees should not come up on frames with just foundation in winter.
3. Pull frames with just foundation if you can replace with drawn comb or place them outside of the path the cluster may take moving up through the hive in the winter.
4. Trust the bees have arranged their stores above where the cluster will begin the winter and be raising fall brood keeping in mind their needs as you remove any boxes for winter.

Combining Colonies:
1. It is generally better to take your losses in the fall and go into winter with stronger colonies.
2. You might want to consider combining hives if: (1) you have a queen-less hive, (2) you have a weak hive. You must do this carefully and systematically.

Top Bar Hives
1. Now is the time to start moving your bars and reorganizing them for winter.
2. If you have a center entrance hive, that means moving them toward the center with your follower board on either side of the hive entrance with all stores down to one side.
3. Think about what you will use as a windbreak and make sure your mouse guards are on.

Colder nights:
1. Mouse Guards – get them on BEFORE the mouse moves in.

2. If you appear to have lost a queen be sure and offer the resources, including brood and nurse bees, to another colony. Capped brood left behind a dwindling event may still be viable and will need a home. Take care not to transfer any apparent diseased frames. September dwindling is usually due to foragers lost during mowing events during the goldenrod and aster flow in our farming community. Even robust, healthy colonies fall victim to dwindling. Do a through inspection for the queen before any transfer as she is not prone to leave the hive.

Harvest or Store “Surplus” Honey Frames:
1. Your honey frames are ready to extract when nearly all the cells (approx. 80%) are capped.
2. One colony needs approximately 70 pounds of honey to make it through winter. One medium frame can hold 3 lbs. One deep frame can hold 7 to 9 lbs. (some beekeepers space frames for the extra pounds but generally 7.5 lbs make up a fully capped deep frame.)

Feeding:
1. If you’re worried that your bees will not have enough stores going into winter, feed them 1:1 sugar syrup (2:1 when the weather gets cooler).