March
The bees will start to find pollen in the month of March, urging them to start the process of returning to normal hive activities. The queen will start laying to almost full capacity as the month goes on and warmer weather allows. Make sure your hives have food, just because they are able to start finding some pollen does not mean there are any nectar sources quite yet, so they need sugar and they probably need it bad. March is a month where many beekeepers are tricked into thinking their hives have survived the winter, just to see them die out due to starvation. You can start feeding them sugar syrup, candy boards or extra honey frames (if you have any).
You may want to start thinking of feeding pollen, as the influx of pollen can embolden the queen to lay more eggs, boosting your hive’s early spring buildup.
Get out there and open your hives, clean the dead-outs and feed the survivors.
April
The bees have returned to full activity, finding nectar and pollen in early spring blooms of maple trees, locust trees, honeysuckle, dandelions and quite a few other trees and bushes. Get into your hives and inspect the brood pattern, consider replacing the queen if she has not returned to laying a solid pattern. Consider inverting your brood boxes, putting the empty lower box above the occupied one, this gives the queen a host of other cells to move UP (she always moves up when searching for more space to lay) to, allowing your colony to increase in population greatly.
Do a mite count for your overwintered hives in April to get a good idea where the mite load is at. Take efforts to control a mite load over 2% at this time of year (2 mites per 100 bees). Walk away splits and formic acid are both great tools at this time of year because it’s the time to start making splits and the temperatures are well within the Mite Away Quick Strips range.
By the later part of April, the nectar really starts to flow. Pull the feeders from the stronger hives and add honey supers. Keep feeding weaker hives if they need a boost, but keep the supers off of the hives that are consuming sugar syrup, this keeps that sugar out of your honey.
Watch out for swarm preparations in April, stronger hives may be getting to that point and the best course of action at this time would be a swarm prevention split.
April is the month most bee packages are delivered. Make sure you feed as much as the package needs while it is getting built up.
May
The full nectar flow is underway and you can remove feeders from any hives that still have them. Stay on top of their population, making sure they have enough room to expand, thereby warding off any swarming. Keep an empty super on all hives that have more than one brood box, they want to pack honey away above the brood nest and all you need to do is make sure they have somewhere to store it, lest they start to backfill the brood area and create a difficult situation for you.
Consider setting out a swarm trap in your bee yard or in other areas that you can check regularly. May is the beginning of the true swarm season and swarms caught at this time of year are very likely of the reproductive variety (as opposed to cramped swarms or absconds) and therefore the highest quality swarm you can catch. Old brood comb and lemongrass oil are both great cheap swarm lures.
May is a great month to make splits from your overwintered colonies. The nearby drones are reaching sexual maturity and will be flooding the drone congregation areas very soon. Make sure you give your splits food, as the breakup of overall workforce will mean a lesser ability for each component to forage. Mark the date you set out your walk away splits and plan on checking for eggs in one month.
June
Much the same as May, the bees are interested in packing honey away. Keep adding supers when necessary. Check the queens laying pattern and replace her if necessary. Keep an eye out for swarming.
Sumac, milkweed, linden (basswood) and clover all contribute to a hearty nectar flow here in Michigan in the month of June.
Do a mite count and plan on taking action if the mite load is over a 2% concentration. Good options in June are formic acid (follow the instructions and pay attention to ambient temperature!), oxalic acid (remove your honey supers!) and thymol. You can still perform walk away splits at this time of year, too, so consider that as an aspect of your Integrated Pest Management Plan.
July
Throughout the majority of the month of July, in Michigan, the nectar flow continues, with blooming milkweed, butterfly weed, thistle, bee balm and more, so continue to add honey supers as needed. Toward the end of the month, the nectar slows down and the bees use that along with the shortening of the days after the summer solstice (at the end of June) to start winter preparations. The brood nest will start to shrink and the nectar/honey will encroach into the brood area. This starts in small, imperceptible ways at this time of year, but it is good to understand that point so that you can start envisioning winter configurations. Get all of your hives moved to their winter locations and start purchasing or building the winter components (quilt box, moisture boards, upper entrance shims, candy board shims) so that you’re not playing catch-up later on.
August
August is possibly the most important month of the beekeeping year. During this month the bees will start to rear “winter bees”, specialized workers with enlarged fat bodies that will allow them to dispense and consume nutrients throughout the winter and stay alive for up to 6 months (as opposed to 6 weeks for a “summer bee”). The healthy development of these bees from the day the egg is laid until the day they take their first flight, is crucial to the overwintering success chances. Parasitization by mites during the larval period of these bees greatly reduces these specialized traits and will make surviving the winter MUCH harder. My target date here in Michigan for having the mites in check is August 15th. If you haven’t done anything or paid any attention to the mite load all year, do yourself and your bees a favor and do a mite count. Treat anything at or above a 3% threshold (3 mites per 100 bees). Treatment options this time of year are formic acid (if the temperatures allow, follow the instructions CAREFULLY), thymol or oxalic acid (only affects phoretic mites, may require more than one treatment).
The nectar flow has essentially ended, although Goldenrod is on its way and that, depending on your location, may be a major nectar influx. Consider removing excess honey supers mid month and keeping them off for the rest of the year. This will allow the fall nectar/honey to contribute to their winter weight.
September
September is our last chance as beekeepers to have a great effect on how our bees will go into winter. Conduct your final inspections early in September, noting the size of the colony, the amount of food stores (and overall weight) and their overall density. If they aren’t completely filling the space they have, consider reducing the amount of boxes. What would seem like a swarm ready colony in June (in terms of density) is a perfect situation in September/October. This last inspection should be the last time you separate boxes or crack any seals. From here on, the bees will take over.
Make sure all hives have an upper entrance (upper entrances are essential in winter for both ventilation and an entrance/exit that won’t get clogged with falling, dead bees). If you are adding an upper entrance as a shim, add it as soon as you can, so the bees have an opportunity to seal the cracks with propolis.
Goldenrod will bloom throughout much of September. In many parts of the country that can be a considerable nectar flow and can offer a great boon to your bees’ winter pantry. After the goldenrod is done blooming, however, that’s it. There won’t be any more nectar and with nothing else to do, the bees start robbing. Make sure to add robbing screens or reduce entrance sizes before the goldenrod is done. Robbing can be swift and devastating, so be proactive rather than reactive.
Start feeding your light hives in September. A good mark to shoot for is 100lbs of carbohydrates per hive, per winter.
Consider combining weaker colonies in late September.
October
The bees are switching to Winter mode now. The nights are getting longer and the brood nest has shrunk considerably. The nectar flow is done and during warm days the robbing threat is high. Make sure all of your hives are winter ready in terms of location, upper entrance, overall weight and density. You can install your moisture control system or add your extra insulation toward the end of the month. Continue feeding until either the goal weight is met or the nights are drifting into the low 40s. Pull all liquid food before the nights start to freeze.
November
The bees are clustered for the winter, only flying when the temperature reaches 50 degrees or so. They remain clustered inside the hive to maintain proper temperatures. As the temperature fluctuates, the size/density of the cluster fluctuates to maintain a nice warm 85f internal temperature. This does not mean the entire hive cavity is kept at 85f, only the cluster. Cold region adapted honey bees are incredible in their ability to maintain a proper cluster temperature while going through a minimum of stores (sometimes as low as 3lbs of honey per month). Ideal situations for us as beekeepers during the winter are sunny, windless situations maintaining temperatures at or just above freezing. Those circumstances allow the least effort by the bees to maintain temperature while being cold enough to prevent unnecessary flight or hive activities that may use excess resources.
You can consider oxalic acid fogging for mite control in November as the majority of hives will be broodless, making oxalic acid much more effective than during warmer months where a large portion of the mites are underneath brood cappings. Don’t confuse this mite control effort as an effort to get your bees to survive the winter. Any damage that has been done is already complete, as the “winter bees” have already progressed through their larval period. This mite control effort will have a beneficial impact on next spring’s bees, giving them a mite free start to the year.
December
The bees are enjoying the holidays in a cluster, eating nearby honey when the need arises but mostly they staying tightly clustered and most likely completely broodless. There isn’t much we as beekeepers can do during the month of December. You can scoop dead bees out of the entrance of your hives to increase ventilation and prevent a wet, moldy mess. Other than that, consider planning equipment and bee purchases for next year.
January
The bees remain clustered throughout the month of January. As in December, the only real thing we can do for our bees is keep their entrance clear of snow and dead bees. Keep an eye on your covers during the winter as winter storms can blow off even heavily weighted telescoping covers. Purchase bees for next year and plan all of your equipment purchases. Watch old beekeeping YouTube videos to keep your senses sharp and prevent a “re-learning” period next Spring.
After the winter solstice, the days being to lengthen and the bees use this cue to start maintaining a brood nest again. This is great, as it allows for a regeneration of the winter population and begins preparations for our spring bees, but offers some perils in the fact that the cluster now has to maintain a considerably higher temperature of 93f, making the bees more susceptible to temperature fluctuations and causing them to go through more honey stores.
February
February matches January in almost every respect. As the days lengthen the brood nest will grow, modestly until the temperatures allow a large expansion. On a warmer sunny day you can lift up the back of your hives (without weights or excess snow) to get a good feeling of their remaining stores. If your hives are light you can consider adding dry sugar in either the sugar brick or mountain camp methods.
