It’s June 30th and they’re not capping
Another spring another challenge. It’s the end of June and my hives are loaded with nectar but it’s not capped.
Two sets of questions- Why? & What to do?
My Plan A is to wait a couple of weeks, put up robbing boards, change my swiffer sheets, and let them finish the job.
Now that the main nectar flow is over, will they continue to make wax and cap the honey?
Plan B - extract what I had planned on harvesting and dry it down to <18%. Feel free to share your best practice for accomplishing this task.
Is this a common occurrence?
Is this the result of a wetter than normal May?
Should I sell my hives and take up golf? (lol)
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Hi Dave,
I'm a 4th year beekeeper; I did ok with the honey harvest last year and I'm on track to do great this year. I'm def not the end all be all authority here, but I've heard a lot of "nectar flow on/off" comments from beekeepers in MD and what I've learned is to use my own intuition. With that being said, Last May I caught a swarm which I harvested in June and then harvested the swarm again along with another hive in August (mainly cause they were slow to cap). I didn't decrease openings till Sept 27th last year to stop robbing, which I get every year. I believe every apiary and situation is unique, but my journal shows and reminds me of the trends in my apiary. I hope this helps to at least show that just being in MD doesn't mandate your approach to beekeeping and that you might have to wait it out and see what happens, since it's not always a cookie cutter solution. Things can always go side ways, but you could walk away with a better awareness of your apiary that you didn't have before. I know it doesn't feel great...I've been there! And....don't give up on the bees yet....nobody looks at a golfer with appreciation...but people that you meet and neighbors, they're all glad you took the leap of faith; most people can't or won't. That's my 2 cents....good luck!