Tips, Tricks, and Reminders for Every Month

We know there is so much to remember being a Beekeeper. So, we've provided a list of tips, tricks, and reminders each month just for you!

Please reach us at contactnetba@gmail.com if you need more information!

January

Your bees will be waking up and you should be seeing them collecting the first pollen of the year.
Your queens will be on the go laying eggs. Remember, as she lays and the population grows, the need for pollen and nectar grows as well.
Feed pollen, substitute or dry feeding, your choice. This will ensure that your hives have enough food resources to continue to grow and remain steady during any temperature changes in weather.
Honey stores are important too. Your hives need approximately 30lbs remaining of stored honey. If not, feed syrup in order to make sure there is enough available to feed the brood.
Mite treatments are very effective this time of year. Testing is acceptable when the outside temperature is above 55 degrees. This is also the perfect time to begin keeping track of your mite levels for the year. Treatment options would be for little or no brood present.
If you haven’t already, get your queen and nucs ordered now.

Febuary

Your hive is growing and stored honey/syrup remains important during this time. Your beekeeping year is beginning and you should be checking your hives every other week in order to make sure there is enough food for a growing hive. Don’t rely on flower sightings that all is well because their visual sighting is not a guaranty that nectar is being produced and available at this time. Try to keep your hives around the 30lb mark in stored honey/syrup.
Continue to offer pollen substitute because of continuing unexpected fluctuations in the weather including cold snaps. Bees will reduce their foraging under 55 degrees and a growing hive will cannibalize brood if it runs out of pollen.
If you run double deeps and choose to flip your boxes, this is the time to get that done. Once completed, your queen and brood should be in the bottom box with a less full (or empty) box on top.
Strong hives will swarm now if given the chance. If your hive is at 75% or more capacity, add an additional box. You can always make a split later in the spring.
If you haven’t already tested (and treated if needed) for mites, do it now. A visual inspection for mites is not a reliable method for determining mite levels, however, if you visually see mites at this time, the infestation is already at lethal levels. Testing is done with 1/2 cup of bees (300) and powdered sugar or alcohol. If your hive has 6 or more mites per 300 bees you (2 per 100) need to treat.

March

Continue to monitor food resources and mainting 30lb honey/syrup mark. Continue to offer pollen substitute for any unexpected cold snaps.
Your hive should be exploding with tons of eggs and new spring bees. If you don’t see signs of eggs, larva, or brood, your hive is queenless. Merging, adding a frame of brood including 1-3 day old eggs, or adding a new queen are all options to consider.
Splits begin now. Set your splits to coincide with your grafting or queen delivery.
Swarming is still a great possibility. Remember the 75% rule and add boxes or split if needed. If your hive has swarm cells (queen cells located on bottom edges of frames) the only way to prevent swarming is by splitting. Scraping the cells off rarely prevents the hive from swarming at this point.
Check your stored supers and make sure they are free of wax moths. Replenish moth crystals at this time.
Remove entrance reducers to ensure hives do not overheat on warm days. This is also the time to open your vented bottoms, remove mouse guards, candy boards, and quilt boards.
This is the deadline in our area to treat for mites in order for the hives to be ready for honey flow. Test and treat (if needed) if you haven’t already done so.

April

Spring is here and your hives will continue to grow rapidly. Food stores are still important. Try to maintain 15lbs of stored honey/syrup in the brood boxes. There should no longer be a need to offer pollen substitute.
If you are purchasing and receiving hives, nucs or packages, make sure to feed well, verify the queen is laying well, and add boxes when the first box becomes 75% full of bees.
Continue to watch for swarm cells and split if necessary. Make sure your hives have plenty of room for growth in order to prevent swarming.
It’s too late to treat for mites due to upcoming honey flow because there is not enough time for the mite product to dissapate prior to adding supers for flow.

May

Your hives should be reaching peak population. Continue to check them on a weekly schedule in order to make sure there is enough room. Check your stored supers if you have not already done so.
If your honey super foundations are not already drawn out with comb, you need to continue to feed in order to encourage the bees to draw the foundations out. Bees will not draw comb in the supers if they have to crawl through a queen excluder, so wait until you see a small area of drawn comb on half of the frames in the super before you add the excluder. Queen excluders are optional. If you choose to use them, be sure and follow these steps if your foundations do not have drawn comb.
Continue to feed your nucs and packages until 75% of the frames in the first box are drawn and covered with bees. Honey supers can be added at this time but follow the above recommendation if you are choosing to use a queen excluder.
Splits can still be completed at this time but do not expect a honey crop from the hive. Queens for purchase will begin to become scarce.
Make sure your hives are well ventilated and in full sun.

June

Honey flow is still going but will be slowing down towards the end of the month. Continue to add supers when the existing super reaches 75% full.
Set up your honey house for extraction.
Honey frames can be removed for extraction when the honey is capped by the bees. A good rule of thumb is to not extract a frame that has more than 25% total of uncapped honey on it.
Remove bees from the supers prior to bringing them in to the honey house for extraction. Options for removing are fume boards, bee brush, or bee blower. Because small hive beetles are so abundant in our area, bee escapes are not recommended. Do not use smoke on your honey frames, it’s not effective and will give your honey a smoky flavor. Super frames of honey should be extracted as soon as possible in order to avoid the honey being ruined by small hive beetles.
Once the honey is extracted from the frames, they should be given back to the bees for cleaning. If you choose to put them back on the hives for cleaning, place them back on at dusk, which reduces the chance of the smell of the honey creating a robbing issue. The boxes can also be left out in the open for cleaning but you need to make sure they are no less than 50-100 yards away from your hives so that the cleaning process does not create a robbing issue in your apiary.
Once the frames are cleaned, store them with moth crystals for the next season.
As it heats up, make sure your hives have a continuous water source and are well ventilated.

July

Honey flow slows to an end during the first of the month. You have a choice, you can remove all supers by the end of the first week of July, or you can watch for the signs of goat weed popping up. Either way, your supers should be removed prior to the bees feeding off this plant.
After the honey flow is over and supers have been removed and extracted, your focus should be back on varroa mites that could be spiking at critical levels during this time. Your second round of testing/treating should happen now. Make sure that if you have to treat, you are using a product for this time of year. Honey Bee Health Coalition has a great interactive program that will help you determine your best course of action. Care should be given in regards to the presence of brood, current outside temperatures, and limitations stated on treatment labels.
July is hot and plants are no longer producing nectar in our area but your hives are still producing brood which need to be fed. It is very important to make sure that each hive has an adequate amount of stored food resources (30lbs) at all times. Feed syrup if needed but be careful not to honey bind your queen. Maintaining this amount of feed will guaranty there is enough resources for your hives to remain strong.
Make sure there is room for your hives to continue to populate as well as have enough space in order to not overheat. Cracking the lid or offering another box for additional ventilation is acceptable. It is recommended that your hives have 2 brood boxes to live in at this time.
Winter preparation begins now. Starved hives with high mite counts now turn out to be winter losses in the coming months, therefore, it is critical to keep your hives healthy and fed during this time.
This is a great time to get your honey super comb drawn out for the next year. Place your supers on the hives and heavily feed the hive. The bees will draw out the comb during this time. Be sure and remove these boxes prior to fall and store with moth crystals.
If you missed the opportunity to test and treat for mites prior to the honey flow, this is now your opportunity. Make sure that if you have to treat, the treatment is acceptable for the current outside temperature. Remember there is a great tool to help you decide what treatment is best over at the Honey Bee Health Coalition website.

August

As the heat continues, make sure your hives continue to maintain 30lbs of food resources and have a good water source.
In order to keep your queen laying, and to maintain a strong hive during this time, you might need to offer pollen substitute. This is especially important in the hot summer months when the heat kills off the majority of the blooming plants. Remember, healthy hives during the summer months are healthy hives through the winter.
If you are feeding syrup, you might give an essential oil mix a try. It can give your hives the extra nutrition needed during this time.
The activity of the hive will be reduced during the heat of the day. Bearding late in the evening is common now. Offer extra space, in the form of an extra box in order to give the bees space and to help with overheating.

September

This month begins the transition from summer to fall and and it can bring cooler temperatures, moisture, or more heat. Managing food stores continues to be an important factor in making sure your hives remain strong and healthy.
If you have not tested for mites since April, or prior to the honey flow, this is the time to do so. Test with 300 bees (1/2 cup) and treat if you find 5 or more mites. This is the time when the mite counts spike and can become out of control and it is very important to know your levels and treat with an appropriate treatment if necessary. Don’t forget about the Honey Bee Healthy Coalition interactive varroa management tool.
Your hives are now making your winter bees. Making sure the hive has all of its resources needed for a healthy diet is a must at this time. Pollen, honey, syrup, essential oils, pollen substitute, they need it now to ensure they are able to feed the winter bees the best diet possible for the upcoming winter months. Anything you do now will directly affect your hive as it goes through the winter months.
September is the last time queens will be available but is a perfect time for you to take advantage of this final opportunity.

October

Your hives will slow down on their consumption of syrup as the queen begins to shut down for the season. Final feeding should happen now and you should be focused on having enough winter stores of resources in the hive at this time. It is recommended in our area to have 30-50lbs of stored resources for the upcoming winter. If your hives have less than this amount already stored, continue to offer syrup and pollen substitute.
Weak hives (hives with less than 6 frames covered front and back with bees) should be combined with stronger ones at this time. Kill the queen in the weak hive prior to combining with one of your stronger hives. This will ensure the queen that is producing better survives the combine. Combining the hives by utilizing the paper method is recommended in order to reduce fighting amongst the bees.
Complete your testing of mites and final treatments at this time. Remove queen excluders if you have not already done so. By the end of this month, you should have installed entrance reducers, mouse guards, quilt box, etc as needed for your area.
All of your efforts over the previous months should be seen now. Your hives should have 8-16 frames of bees, 30-50lb of food resources, and acceptable mite levels in order to survive the upcoming winter. Nice job!

November

Temperature changes are all over the place during this month. If it’s cooler, you will find less brood and if it’s warmer, you might find multiple frames of brood. Hopefully, your hives already have the 30-50lb of stored food resources. If not, continue feeding.
If your mite levels remain over 6 mites per 1 cup (300) of bees, try an Oxalic Acid treatment. It’s very effective for when hives are broodless or nearly broodless.
Continue to complete any combines as necessary.
Closing up your screened bottom boards is not necessary in our area, however, it is highly recommended that wind breaks be put in place in order to prevent wind from blowing up underneath the hive.

December

Bees will be out looking for protein sources on warm days and leaving and open source of protein powder for them is helpful.
As the days get colder and winter kicks in, you will see that the size of the cluster will reduce in size over time. This is normal and confirms how important it is to build up a strong hive prior to the winter months.
Make your plans no, if you haven’t already done so, for the purchase of any nucs, packages, or queens. Ordering now will ensure the earliest possible pick up date for hte coming spring.
Plan and budget for your next year. Watch for sales on equipment and supplies from major beekeeper retailers. Make repairs on equipment or put your newly purchased equipment together now. Catch up on your bee reading and connect with other beekeepers in your area.

Tips, Tricks, and Reminders for Every Month

This website uses cookies.