August already! How on earth did that happen, this is episode 26 and I have no idea how the weeks have just raced passed. For me August is a kind of a bittersweet month, on the one hand it’s really exciting as this is when I take off our Summer crop of honey and on the other hand it kind of signals the push towards the end of the season. For me, there is no move to the heather to grab a late crop of honey and I don’t have any Mid-Summer into autumn flowering crops to benefit from so it really is a time to take stock of the honey production that we have achieved to the end of July and this first week of August is our extraction week. How you deal with your bees locally will of course depend greatly on whether you have alternative crops to take your bees to but for me my focus now turns to extraction, treatments for varroa when necessary and then into autumn I’ll feed to ensure the colonies are as well prepared as I can make them for the Winter that is fast approaching! Of course, I’m saying all of this in the ongoing return of the heatwave we have been experiencing here in the UK this Summer, it seems a bit daft to be talking about Winter but now is the time to get prepared. So let’s look at what I’m up to this month and that may give you some pointers as to what you might want to do or maybe plan to do depending on your local conditions. One of the important jobs for me is making sure I have enough storage space for the honey crop and with that in mind I had to order in some additional honey buckets. This year, once again I've ordered them from C.Wynn Jones, lovely people who are always ready to help and their have some very competitive prices. Check out their website at www.cwynnejones.com Don't forget you can listen to my podcasts as they are released to my patrons by signing up at www.patreon.com/norfolkhoney

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