July

July is the month where the next big wave of herbacious plants seem to take off; lots of different giant daisies (helenium, rudbeckia, leucanthemum, to name just a few), mallows (malva, hollyhocks and lavateras) the herbs flower if they allowed providing the bees with essential oils to protect them from parasites as well as nectar. Wildflowers are also in abundance if you live in a rural area; brambles in the hedgerows and rosebay willowherb in corners of fields. Even in areas of mass arible production these (invasive) thugs seem to find homes - not good for gardeners but important of bees.

A month of real abundance not only because of the glut of flowering plants but also because the queen bee stops laying so profusely and so the majority of the bees are available to work on nectar collecting rather than looking after the babies. This is the time when the main honey production occurs as they get ready to feed themselves through the long winter months.