Just go. Have a good time.

 

I agree with cg3. Then just before you leave, do the best you can to prepare the hives, Adding supers, killing swarm cells, feeding, whatever they need.
Luke

 

bees been taking care of themself for thousands of year im sure they wont miss you for 9 days , enjoy, =)

 

If your bees aren't able to take care of themselves for a week or two, you need different bees. However, personally, I do like to not plan trips during the time of spring when they are likely to swarm. I want to capture any swarms & I also like to be home in case anyone calls with swarms for me to pick up.

 

I think July is the best time to take a bee vacation. Everything is already established waiting for the autumn flow
to start. If there is a dearth then put out syrup on each hive for a week or so. That will fix the issue for 5 days I
am sure they will not die with the extra reserves inside the hive. Put out bucket water so they can drink too instead
from the neighbor's pool.

 

I would wait until Dec. then go south and visit some southern bees

 

Here is some advice given to someone who had to travel for two weeks during the spring build-up.
If the brood was spread between two or more boxes, do a walk-away split,
including splitting the supers between the two hives.
During the two weeks the queenless hive would start making a queen.
When the beekeeper returned he/she could simply recombine the hives or wait another week to see if the queen hatched and mated. (eggs)
Then he/she could let the hive continue, or bank or sell or give away the queen and recombine the hives.
I haven't tried this myself, but it sure sounds like it'd work.

Jerry

 

Ok. Thanks very much for the advice. It's good to know that it will be easier to take care of the bees than my dogs or even my fish. : )

 

Realistically since you're planning on traveling in the summer, as others have said, you really don't need to keep that close of an eye on them. I have an apiary about 45 miles from town I visit maybe once every 6 weeks in the summer time. If you get into queen rearing (or already are) time management becomes quite a bit more critical (if not bloody essential), so as far as vacations in the summer go; I wouldn't worry about it.