What does the summer solstice have to do with beekeeping?
The beekeeping year is divided into two different categories: expansion and contraction. The summer solstice, which usually falls on June 21 in the Northern hemisphere, marks the end of the expansion phase.
Bees follow the patterns in nature, not the books on beekeeping. 😉 Nature does what she pleases, but the Summer solstice holds fast. It is not subject to the weather, beekeepers preferences, or the floral cycles of nectar flow and dearth. Instead, the Summer solstice with the shortening of the amount of daylight, signals the long, slow slide into Winter.
Our beloved bees, like other critters in God’s creation, notice the slight differences in the length of sunlight during the day. As the days begin to shorten, the honey bees take note. The queen in each colony begins to lay fewer eggs. This may coincide with a likely decrease in the amount of nectar, so the bees will have less to forage and may exhibit signs of being idle such as the washboarding or rocking back and forth. This is a sign of the end of nectar flow, the end of peak population in each colony, and the summer slow down.🌻
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