Well the calendar of a beekeeper goes as follows:
JANUARY
No normally an active time for bees. After storms or high winds, chack that hive roofs are still in place and rain proof. If the ground is covered by snow shade hive entrances so the brightness does not tempt bees into the cold air. Do not clear deep snow from hives. It is air-permeable and a good insulator, the bees should come to know harm. Check each hives food supply by hefting it, lifting one side, feeling how heavy it seems. Colonies in dire need will often be found pressed up against the crown board. Feed candy or fondant, in direct contact with the cluster if required, using an empty super to give the space. How are your anti-varroa dispositions?
Plan the coming seasons work. Order any equipment early from suppliers.
FEBRUARY
Longer days start many colonies into brood rearing, even early in the month, depending on location and conditions. Around the middle of the month check food stores again. Should the weather remain cold feed again if needed. In a warmer spell, when bee flights are possible, a contact feeder of warm syrup could be given.
Varroa inserts can be used to check the mite population towards the end of the month. They should be left in for two weeks and the daily mite fall calculated. Send the debris samples to Scottish Agricultiral Science Agency (SASA) for examination.
MARCH
Mild spells are more common now. Early this month the first opportunity for a cleansing flight after Winter confinement will occur. Some irratation may be cause to neighbours.
Bees become quite active, taking advantage of early flowers: aconite; snowdrop; crocus; butterbur and so on, to collect pollen and nectar. Look out for yellow pollen loads on honecoming bees’ hind legs. Again check stores, particularly after extended warm spells. Feed syrup and/or pollen substitute as required.
A superficial examination of the brood chamber could be done on a fine mild day. Brood combs should not normally be exposed, except perhaps one and that only to verify the presence of brood.
The blooming of the Flowering Currant bush may happen towards the end of this month. It is widely regarded as a signthat stocks can be safely examined, all other conditions being favourable.
APRIL
A busy month for bees and beekeepers. Willow and some ornametal Cherrys provide the first sizeable flow of pollen and nectar. Brood rearing increases, bees are able to take regular flights. Give hives a full examination during a fine day about the middle of the month. Spring clean the hives.
Look out for signs of Winter diseases like acarine and nosema; crawling bees and dysentry. Do the first treatment for Varroa, before putting on any supers. Follow treatment instructions to the letter.
See how well the queen is laying. Make certain the brood is healthy, it should be sparkling pearlescent white in colour and sealed brood uniform and fresh, in oval patches with few gaps. At this time of year little of it should be drone brood, particularly in worker cells. If there are doubts about brood health get an experienced beekeeper from a local association to take a look. Brood disease such as AFB and EFB are very dangerous.
In colder areas, cooler seasons and special conditions needing early colony strength, feeding syrup and pollen substitute can bring development forward if need be. Three weeks are required for new workers to become available.
Mark queens this month while the colony is small. Clip her wings as a method of swarm control, if desired. Unit disease free colonies with normal stocks.
MAY
The flowers of May bring an increase in brood rearing. Queens should not be left short of brood-rearing space. In a congested brood area room can be made by rearranging combs to bring good, empty, drawn comb into the brood rearing area.
In some distracts, supers, with queen excluder under, can be need in the first quarter of the month. Keep your eye on the flowering. Strong stocks can gather a surplus from OSR – this needs special treatment, remove as soon as possible – and sycamore.
Now is the time to activate your swarm control dispositions. The artificial swarm as a means of varroa management can now be applied to advantage.
JUNE
The early part of June marks the transition between the Spring flowers and the blooming of the Summer flowers. Nectar may be scarce in some places and seasons. This is the ‘June Gap’ . Feeding amy be necessary, especially if you have removed the Spring honey. Should an extended dry period occur, and they do occasionally, make sure a shallow dish of water is available to the bees. They need it to mobilise their honey stores and to raise brood.
In most districts bees will swarm sometimes this month if left to their own devices, earlier to the Southwest and later to the Northeast. All colonies require regular, nine day examination. Queen rearing should be undertaken at this time during a nectar flow. The queens raised this month will get a chance to mate well in warm July weather. Now begin to prepare your heather harvest colonies. Those need vigorous young queens and abundant foragers.
Supers should be ready for the main flow from white clover towards the later part of this month.
JULY
The swarming impulse will gradually die away towards the middle of the month. Should a swarm occur later despite your best efforts, it will need luck or assistance to establish itself adequately for Winter.
By the third week of July the main floral honey flow from lime, bramble and willow herb, will normally be drawing to a close. Colonies avid for stores will pounce on any bits of honeycomb from manipulations, Beware, robbing can be provoked. Confining manipulations to late afternoon or evening may help avoid this. During the last week remove completed supers. Start extraction and preparation of floral honey. This work can continue through the next two months.
Once the supers are removed examine colonies and if necessary, treat for Varroa. This is also a good time to requeen stocks. Colonies prepared for going to the heather should be readied for the move during the last week of this month.
AUGUST
During the first week of August shift your prepared colonies to the moors. Heather can make heavy demands on even the strongest stocks if there is prolonged poor weather at your site. Watch their food supplies.
Colonies not moved to the moors can receive atention to get them ready for Winter. They are now raising their Winter bees. Drones start to be herded to the margins of the brood area and expelled from the hive.
Treatment for Varroa can be very urgent at this time.The total quantity of brood available to Varroamites is diminishing, but mites are not. At this critical moment a brood of badly infested colonies can be swamped by hungry young mites. Rapid lethal damage ensues. Even in lightly infested colonies, the destruction of mites exposed now at their most vulnerable on adult bees, will diminish the Winter load of parasites and maximise the mites problem come next Spring.
SEPTEMBER
Colonies from the heather moors should all be returned home by the middle of the month, examined and treated for Varroa if this has not already been done.
Be alert for any influx of bees from Varroa collapsed colonies, carrying mites into your healthy stocks. These could undo all your hard work if the go unoticed and untreated.
Every colony should be checked for health. Conditions such as Nosema, Acarine and so on, which can flourish in Winter confinement, need your attention. As these require the use of amicroscope for diagnosis, if the field symptoms are discovered, you mite need to enlist the help of your local association.
Wet, extracted combs can be given to the colonies to clean up. All necessary fedding, uniting of stocks and nucleai and general Winter preparations should be over by the end of the month; remaining supers and queen exluder removed from the colonies; Varroa floors, if fitted should be checked. The stock i.e. frames, bees, brood chamber and ancillary bits, should wiegh in about 25kg, feel quite heavy!
OCTOBER
Brood rearing ceases. The bees become less active, starting to gather in their dense Winter cluster on colder days.
Discontinue liquid feeding after the middle of October. Carry out final Winter preparations. Reduce entrance size and fit mouse guards if required. Rope or weight down roofs making hives weather proof.
Store extracting combs securely, treated against waxmoth. Carefully clean, sterilise and dry all extracting equipment. Repair any equipment damaged during the year.
NOVEMBER
Check that hives remain secure against the weather, particularly after storms. In the North and East, Winter can suddenly anounce itself with great violence.
DECEMBER
For bees and beekeepers the quietest month, but check that roofs remain water tight. If sunshine follows snow, shade the hive entrance so bees are not lured out into the cold, where they rapidly chill and die.
Read good bee books.
