MID-MARCH HIVE CHECK

This article describes how I and some close beekeeping friends keep our bees.  These methods may or may not work for you or fit with your beekeeping philosophy.

As I sit here thinking of spring and writing this article I can see snow falling, but tomorrow its supposed to warm to 48F and the bees will be flying.  Well I guess that’s simply March in Wisconsin.  The buds on the maples are beginning to swell so it can’t be long until the surviving hives are raising new brood at a furious rate.  So I am trying to put in writing the things we should be doing in the last two weeks of March and beginning of April. 

1)      Check your survivor hives and make sure they have enough food.  There still should be capped honey next to the bee cluster.  If not, consider adding supplemental dry feed.  Its still too cold for liquid feed.  This inspection should just be a quick peek.  You don’t want to chill any brood the hive is trying to raise.  The rule of thumb is if you are comfortable outside in a short sleeve shirt then longer and more detailed inspections are OK. 

2)      Clean up your deadouts.  Sweep off the bottom boards.  Remove all frames and shake and brush out the dead bees.  Replace any mouse damaged frames.  Reassemble the hive and seal up the entrance until your new bees arrive.   Sometimes a coat of paint is warranted. 

3)      Order replacement bees (packages or nucs) ASAP!  Some package suppliers are reporting they are already sold out.  

4)      Winter wrapping can now be removed. 

5)      If you get a 70F day you can consider reversing the brood chamber boxes.  If the bees have brood only in the top brood chamber then do the reversal.  If there is brood in both boxes then a reversal is not really necessary because the queen has obviously transitioned back to the lower box.

6)      The main enemy of the bees continues to be mites and the viruses and bacteria they carry.  A spring mite treatment is highly recommended.  The type of mite control is usually highly influenced by the individual beekeeper’s preferences.   Just remember to do the treatment prior to installing the honey supers.  This ensures you won’t contaminate the honey and there are that many less components to handle during the treatment. 

7)      Identify and quantify your strongest hives.  The strong hives will likely swarm beginning in mid-May.  You can beat them at their own game by performing a split before they swarm.  One half of the split will have the old queen.  You need to make a decision as to whether to let the bees in the second half raise their own queen (called a walk away split) or whether you will introduce a queen.   Performing the split eliminates the excitement of trying to capture a swarm that has settled 30 feet up your favorite tree.    If you a going the new queen route you now know how many to order.  If the “walk away split” is unsuccessful in raising a queen you can still buy a queen if some are available.