What to do in your hive in August

August in Arizona is pretty hot.

We hope and pray for rain, and sometimes we get it in droves, along with wind, thunder and lightning. This can mean flooded apiaries, blown over hives, or even trees falling on top of them. So in addition to shading your hive from the blazing sun, you also need to make sure that your shade doesn’t end up falling on your hive.

What an introduction to August!

Well it’s not really dismal, just interesting, and here is what you can do to help your bees make it through.

Provide Shade using foam insulation, corrugated plastic, shade cloth, or placement under trees and other shade structures.
Keep Water Available at all times. Barrels or buckets with wine corks, bird baths, tubs, or other shallow containers with rocks or marbles, even ponds and fountains. Don’t let them dry out.
Feed Bees if they have less than 5 frames of honey stores and no new nectar coming in. Use a 1:1 Sugar Syrup (1 cup sugar to 1 cup water).
Check for Mites and treat if more than 2 mites per 100. You can use Oxalic acid or Hopguard II (Always follow label instructions).
Keep Inspections Cool by using a spray bottle to mist the hive instead of or in addition to using smoke. This helps the bees cool down faster. Mist yourself as well.

What’s Blooming Now?

Bees are desperately looking for food right now. Depending on where you live, you may or may not see flowers for them to eat. Keep these in mind for planting next year so you can help your bees out

Summer vegetables like Squash, Melons, Armenian Cucumbers, Okra, and Luffa are blooming. Also, Zinnias, Sunflowers, Vitex, Baja Fairy Duster, Queens Wreath, Cascalote, Yellow Bells, Mesquite, Texas Rangers will bloom after rain.

What to do with your Beeswax

If you have harvested your honey, then you have some beeswax to render. You may have a lot if you scraped and strained your honey, or just a little if you spun it. Either way, here is a great method for rendering it right in your oven: How to Render Beeswax the Easy Way.