August is a very HOT and dry time in Deep East Texas. Any final extraction duties should be finished during this month.

This time of year has very little to offer as far as nectar or pollen during this month. This month should be dedicated to hive-robbing control and fall splits if you want more colonies. These colony splits will be done with whole hive supers and by the use of live queens or reared cells. The swarm impulse will not be there to help aid in queen production so it will take a large colony of young hive bees. The goal is to produce and mate a queen with a large number of bees with plenty of resources, adding a super on top for the fall weed honey production, and feeding, as well, to be certain of enough winter resources. There are plenty of bees at the end of a honey flow and by splitting late with the extra resources you can take advantage of this.

It is hot work this time of year so work late in the evenings for splits and grafts. This also gives time for any honey that is exposed to be taken care of by the bees over the night time.

If using cells, you will need to check the quality of your queens’ mating by looking at their egg-laying patterns just like you did in the springtime. If live queens are used you will need to check them as well. Any queen that proves un-mated or bad should be killed and the super stacked on something that needs it.