January
- Watch for signs of starvation and take advantage of any warm, over 50 degree days, to feed hives that have no stores.
- Winter feeding is tricky and often is a failure. Best way to feed is before winter. You may want to transfer frames or supers of honey directly over the brood box it is a best way of winter feeding. IF no disease free honey is available, the baggy method is a very good method of feeding sugar water.
- If bees are flying a lot in winter, they will be eating food faster. Keep close tabs on hives to make sure enough food is available.
- When it is very cold, feeding is not easy to accomplish. Recognize you must be proactive early to save any weak hives that do not have enough stores.
- If weather is warm, you may see some pollen in some areas. Supplementing with pollen substitute may not be the best thing for hobbyist beekeepers because you may build up too quickly and end up with an early swarm to weaken your hive. At this time of year, you mostly only need honey or sugar water for feed.
- Get brushed up on your spring plan and when you need to implement your plans. Club meetings and bee schools will greatly assist you in planning for your spring buildup.
- If you have not already done so, pay your dues to Buncombe County and the State of NC. These dues repay you many times over with quality programs and mentoring.February
February
- Watch for signs of starvation and take advantage of any warm, over 50 degree days, to feed hives that have no stores.
- Winter feeding is tricky and often is a failure. Best way to feed is before winter. You may want to transfer frames or supers of honey directly over the brood box it is a best way of winter feeding. IF no disease free honey is available, the baggy method is a very good method of feeding sugar water.
- If bees are flying a lot in winter, they will be eating food faster. Keep close tabs on hives to make sure enough food is available.
- When it is very cold, feeding is not easy to accomplish. Recognize you must be proactive early to save any weak hives that do not have enough stores.
- If weather is warm, you may see some pollen in some areas. Supplementing with pollen substitute may not be the best thing for hobbyist beekeepers because you may build up too quickly and end up with an early swarm to weaken your hive. At this time of year, you mostly only need honey or sugar water for feed.
- Get brushed up on your spring plan and when you need to implement your plans. Club meetings and bee schools will greatly assist you in planning for your spring buildup.
- If you have not already done so, pay your dues to Buncombe County and the State of NC. These dues repay you many times over with quality programs and mentoring.
March
- Check for adequate upward ventilation.
- If there is moisture underneath the inner cover, put shims on topside of inner cover for vent.
- Evaluate food stores
- Do the lift test for at least 15 lbs. honey in super, if less then feed either by transferring a few frames of honey from another hive, pail feeding, baggy feeding with one part sugar and one part hot water to dissolve. Place right above cluster.
- Check for brood and bees
- If eggs or brood are seen, the queen is alive, no need to find her on this initial check
- Remove dead-outs, salvage/clean/store
- Varroa mite check with powdered sugar roll or Vaseline-coated bottom board 24 hr. drop (Decide whether to chemically treat or not. If so, chemicals must come out before mid-April). Alternatives are powdered sugar dustings, splits, drone brood capture, hygienic bee rearing
- Pollen patty feeding only if you are in a dearth area for pollen. Red Maple /Willow/Dandelion have plenty here in the mountains
End of March
- Watch for buildup. Too much feeding will cause swarms
- Swarming season approaches. Equalize brood amongst hives to help weak colonies. Check for honey-bound hives by moving frames of drawn comb in central brood nest. Possibly make splits or nucs from those strong colonies with queen cells
- For Double Deep Hive-reverse hive bodies as bees are in higher body and will only move up
- Air out supers (remove from Paramoth crystals if stored that way) for putting on in mid-April
- Prepare bait hive for swarm capture and have extra equipment on hand
April
- In preparation of the black locust bloom, blackberry, clover, tulip poplar (in May) it is time to get your supers by the 15th of April. The bees are in brood nest expansion and possible swarming if crowded.
- Above 60° mid-day
- Check brood, queen, and pollen stores
- Move empty (not honey-laden) peripheral frames in from outside to expand the brood nest
- Equalize (1 – 2 frames of) brood to boost very weak colonies
- Feed dilute 1:2 syrup via top feeder to stimulate brood rearing only if you have a weak hive or less than 15 pounds of honey. It may increase chance of swarming.
- Clean bottom screen
- Set bait hives to capture swarms and check frequently
- Air out supers (remove from Paramoth) put one or more drawn comb on each hive about April 15.If using foundation, put only one super on at a time until it is drawn out.
- Check brood and queen two or three times for swarm cells along the bottom bars of the frame. (If you see them it is too late to prevent them from swarming but you can still cut out all queen cells, reorganize the brood chamber to make more room or make splits
- Order queens and make splits or nucs from those strong colonies
- If using two hive deeps, reverse hive bodies to ensure central upper expansion room
- Put a queen excluder between the brood chambers and the super a week after the bees have put something in the super (to coax them through it)or move some honey frames into super in the middle
- Enlarge the entrance mid-April
- Super again w/ either foundation or drawn comb if you have it in anticipation of major storage needs
- Meds: take out all Apistan or Checkmite strips, Add Fumidol-B to sugar water (one tsp.)
- If no meds, treat Varroa with powdered XXX sugar by dusting the top bars of the hives every two weeks for 3 times total
May
- Preparing for the locust, blackberry and Tulip Poplar nectar flow should have taken place at end of April.
- Entrance should be enlarged by now
- Check brood nest, if honey bound, take out and replace with drawn comb or wax foundation to continue to give the queen a place to lay
- Reverse double deep hive bodies
- Equalize hives by giving some frames of brood to weaker hives
- Super again w/ either foundation or drawn comb in anticipation of major storage needs
- ALL chemicals should be gone from the hive
- Second week of May flow begins
- Check and add supers as month goes by, move less full peripheral super frames into the middle of the existing super
- Check spacing in supers (9 frames equally spaced instead of 10 helps the beekeeper when honey extraction occurs later)
- Disturb bees only minimally if at all while honey flow is on
June
- Tulip Poplar flow to continue through early to mid-June.
- As flow comes to a close, prepare to extract fully capped frames from supers or cut comb. Frames with uncapped honey will lead to a product with a high moisture content and possible fermentation.
- Frepare supers for sourwood flow, replace foundation if necessary
- Sourwood flow begins mid-late June and continues through mid-July.
July
- Late June or early July, depending on location, honey supers should be placed on hive for Sourwood flow. Around Asheville, you have to watch the Sumac bloom, because you want to keep it separate from your Sourwood. It is blooming late June to early July.
- Make sure you have drawn comb if honey super is placed directly over queen excluder. Bees will not draw out foundation place directly over queen excluder.
- Make plans to extract spring honey so you will have enough supers for sourwood. This means making sure you are on the schedule if you need to rent the club extractor.
- Purchase or have ready supers to add as needed. Drawn comb can all be put on at once, and foundation should be placed on just as it is needed to prevent them chewing it up. Put foundation on when the super below is about 75% full.
- Make plans for treatment options for Varroa mites after the Sourwood flow ends. If you are using chemicals, know which ones and what restrictions and requirements you will have. Purchase ahead of time.
- Splits, one effective method of controlling Varroa, should be made immediately after Sourwood flow ends in late July or early August.
- Leave enough honey on your hive to get through the winter, at least one super of honey.
- Late July and early August do mite counts, with sugar roll or 24 hour mite drop count with screened bottom boards. This will assist in knowing if you are at the threshold to treat, should you be using chemical treatments.
- Late July to early August, harvest Sourwood supers from hives. Make sure as much as possible is capped. If not capped, you can dry honey in the frames with a dehumidifier in the same room, but must be careful to not get it too dry. 24 to 48 hours usually does the trick and a refractometer test for moisture content is needed to make sure it is below 18.6 percent.
- If re-queening hives, plans should be made early in the month to order queens so they will be available at the end of the honey flow.
August
- August is a time for harvesting and extracting your sourwood honey, usually, this year August is a time to carefully check your bees and feed if needed. In most areas sourwood will not exist this year.
- August is the month to assess the level of mite infestation with either the 24hour mite drop from screen bottom board or the sugar roll test. Mite threshold depends on your hive strength.
- For those of you that will be treating, careful assessment of the type of treatment and appropriate temperatures for treatment. Some treatments will have to wait because August is too hot.
- For those that do not treat, Early August is time to split for Varroa treatment so the split will have time to build up before winter.
- Splits can be put in a nuc for backup in case your hive does not make it through the winter.
- This August is probably going to be unusual in that feeding will be needed for most hives in this area, check your hives carefully. Starvation is possible with the dearth of nectar we have had this summer.
- Re-queening now is good if you can find a suitable queen.
- Make plans for feeding in the fall and find sources of feed in case the fall flow does not come in.
- Make plans for next spring by getting early orders for bees, equipment, and queens.
September
- Continue to make sure your bees are “fed up” with at least 45 lbs. of surplus for a colony.
- Apply those treatments like Formic Acid which cannot be applied at higher temperatures
- If you are feeding with a hive top feeder, you will have to go to another method by the end of September, because when weather gets cooler the bees stop using hive top feeders
- Consider taking your queen excluders off by the end of the month unless you are one of those that accepts the risks of leaving them on.(queen excluders left on can lead to starvation in cold months)
- Continue to make sure your hives are queen right. If a hive is queenless, you may not be able to find a queen this time of year. If not, you can combine with a weak hive using the newspaper method
- Monitor bees to see if any golden rod or aster honey is coming in. If it is you may want to super for it. Remember this honey is not very desirable to most people and turns to sugar very quickly. It should be fed to hives first.
- Continue to evaluate the past season, make plans for next season and get your orders in early for bees, queens, and equipment
- Nucs, and weak hives should have the inserts put in place on the screen bottoms by cool weather. Stronger hives will be fine left open
- As weather cools, start closing down the entrance to the smallest opening. This prevents robbing and keeps mice out
October
- If you are moving your bees from a summer forage area, make sure you bring them to a location that is exposed to the sun and facing in a general south to east direction if possible.
- Make sure good air drainage is available to the colony. You do not want them on top of a hill nor in a bottom. Top of the hill is too windy, and bottoms tend to pool up cold air. These considerations are especially important in the winter.
- Make sure the colonies are on good sturdy stands that are not susceptible to rot and will keep the bottom board dry.
- Continue to feed bees to make sure they are fed up before true winter makes feeding difficult.(Top feeders will become useless this month, except to turn upside down over a baggy feeder, as a spacer, with top cover over that.)
- When feeding honey, it is preferable to feed honey from your own apiary from bees you know to be disease free.Ifyou are not sure, transfer of honey can spread disease.
- If you do not have either a natural or artificial wind block behind your hives, you may want to consider constructing a privacy type fence to keep those cold northern and western drafts off of your colonies.
- Think you are immune from bears? You may be surprised if you live in Western North Carolina. A bear fence now may save you some grief later. Instructions are on www.wncbees.org
- Though controversial, if you are doing preventive antibiotic treatments for foulbrood, the treatment should be administered in October. 3 treatments, 7 days apart using powdered sugar and terramycin. (Hygienic bees are also foulbrood resistant)Remember that use of antibiotics, when not needed, can cause antibiotic resistant foulbrood spores to develop. Other options for dealing with potential foulbrood may be better in the long run.
- Monitor weak colonies to requeen or, if the colony is too weak, even combine with stronger colonies. Pollen substitutes can be used to stimulate weaker colonies to produce brood for overwintering, but very small portions should be used and monitored for hive beetles or wax moths. Artificially stimulated colonies that do not produce brood may need a new queen.
- Continue to formulate our plan of action for spring by building, purchasing or budgeting for future ordering of equipment.
- Place orders of find out when you can place orders for nucs, and queens. Place those orders as soon as possible to assure your best chance of actually getting what you need.
- Paint your equipment and store away unused equipment in a pest resistant situation.
November
- Continue to get your hives ready for winter while the weather is favorable by feeding those hives that need feed.
- If you have not already done so, you need to make sure you have removed the queen excluders if part of the winter stores are above the excluder (unless you are one that accepts the risks of leaving them on).
- Entrance reducers should be put in place at this time if not already.
- Continue to check to be sure there is enough honey for the winter. Visual inspection or the lift test should tell you if you have at least 45 lbs of honey stores.
- Make sure, if you have nucs or weak colonies, to put the bottom cover on screened bottoms. Strong hives do not require this in this area, but you may want to anyway.
- Continue to read and make plans for your next season by listing needs, making financial arrangements for your needs, checking out options for meeting equipment and bee needs.
- Write out a proposed plan for what you want to accomplish next season and prepare to carry it out.
- Pay your dues for the upcoming year. The dues you pay now will pay you back many times over in education and mentoring next year.
- Find out how you can help our club be a better club for everyone.
December
- By December, your bees should have enough stored away to get through the winter.
- You should generally avoid going into your hives in December. If you need to go into them anyway, make sure it is a day above 50 degrees F and not windy. Make sure to get in and back out quickly without disturbing the cluster.
- If still lacking winter stores, you can feed with frames of honey, entrance feeders, baggies, or jars with holes in the lids that are placed directly on the top bars of the brood nest.
- If your hive is weak, make sure the cover is on the bottom board.
- Continue to paint equipment that is stored away.
- Make sure any comb that has had brood in it is store so that moths will not damage. Freezing and placing in a sealed garbage bag is excellent.