Calendar – NCBA Events

Bee Order

Your queen should still be tucked away in the cluster of bees. There are still no drones in the hive at this time. cleansing flights will be seen more often as you may start to see more warm days happening. but the hive is still very much in winter mode. The queen and hive will start to notice the longer days and she will begin to lay more eggs daily.

As the beekeeper, you should be doing pretty much what you did in January. Do not be getting into your hive unless it is at least 50 degrees or warmer, and be in there briefly. do not remove frames or anything that may send a chill down into the hive. You should only be checking to see if their honey stores are still available. if not, you may want to ’emergency feed’.  Some beekeepers may keep honey frames in their freezer or storage and replace empty honey frames with frames full of honey from the fall harvest. This is the best way to feed your bees. Other options would be pollen patties or sugar water. But keep an eye on that temperature. This is a must-have to-do month for ordering your bees and hardware. do this now if you want it to arrive in time for spring.

March is the month when your bees could die of starvation if you did not leave them with enough honey stores in the fall or feed them well in autumn. The days are growing longer and the queen knows this. She will increase her egg-laying rate. This means they will definitely need food as the colony increases in size. If their honey stores are depleted, now would be a good time to start feeding if they have depleted their own honey stores to get them going for the spring. Drones should also start to appear in the brood.

As the beekeeper, you should not be getting in the hive unless the days are above 45-50 degrees, and there is no wind or breeze. It’s best not to remove frames if you do get into the hive unless you are inspecting on a day much warmer than 50 degrees.
You should only need to peek at the top to see how their honey stores look. If it appears that they have used all their honey stores, you may want to do some emergency feeding of sugar water to get their energy up and to keep feeding until you notice they are bringing in their own food supplies.
Now would also be a good opportunity to do a varroa mite treatment or at least do one soon if this is something you treat for in your hive in your location.  
With the bee population increasing, now would be a good time to remove the entrance reducer and mouse guards so help alleviate traffic jams at the door.
Now would also be a good time to reverse your brood boxes. put the lower empty one above the upper fuller one. This will help reduce the chance of your hive swarming you. Another would be to add an empty honey super to give the hive more room.
If you left a honey super on in the fall, just leave it on for them to get an early start refilling.  Now if you haven’t ordered your hardware, you’re going to be hitting the suppliers at their busiest time. You really need to have ordered in January.

Pollen is used to create royal jelly to feed the queen. she is gearing up for some great egg production and laying.   large amounts of pollen can also create more drone production.  Your hive is ramping up! be prepared to split or it will swarm. 

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The days are warm and long. But there is that chance of a cold snap happening. You will notice the bees bringing in more nectar and pollen. The queen should be laying at full capacity and you’ll see your hive population growing.

As the beekeeper,  keep feeding your weaker hives. Stronger hives you shouldn’t be feeding. No supers should be on your weak hives. Inspect your hives, and look at the brood boxes. Can you find your queen? do you see eggs? how is the laying pattern? is it solid or scattered?  if it is not solid, you may want to replace your queen. If you are finding your weak hives continue to struggle, you may want to consider combining the weak hive with another.  Stronger hives are better at keeping away pests and diseases.  Swarm season is here!  swarming is the method bees use to grow their populations. It is not that you did a bad job with the hive, this is completely natural. So keep some extra hardware on hand so that if and when your hive swarms, you can capture it and provide a space for the swarm. To help prevent swarming, add one or two honey supers to your hive to give the hive more room and feel less cramped.

keep an eye on bearding and during inspections look for swarm cells!

Your hives should be at their full operation. You should see lots of nectar and pollen being brought to the hive. You should not be feeding your hive at this time. Brood chambers should be full of eggs and larvae. Make sure your brood boxes are not looking congested as this will encourage swarming.  Your bees should be busy filling honey supers. You can create a small entrance at your supers by drilling a 1″ hole in a super or by adding a small entrance spacer.

Bees should still be working hard filling up honey supers as the flows continue. Your hive could still swarm in June, so keep your swarm management or be prepared with extra hive bodies to place the swarm. Be on the lookout for swarms in your neighborhood too. You should see bees hanging out on the porch of your hive. Some may confuse this with the hive wanting to swarm. But the days are just getting too warm for them in the hive. So they’re just cooling off outside and may also be fanning cooling air into the hive. This gathering is also called “bearding”.

Continue monitoring your hive. The bees will need lots of water in the coming weeks. Be sure you provide a good water source someplace in your yard. You want to be a good neighbor and not have them bugging your neighbors’ pool or pet bowls.  You could even put a feeder on with just water, no sugar. Having plenty of water will also help your bees keep the hive cooler.