Spring
Spring time is very important for bees and beekeepers alike, a good Spring paired with good hive management will determine how well a beehive can perform over the summer. Although it’s very much dependent on the weather, it’s also crucial that a beehive has the best chance of success through a beekeepers management of the hive.
As beekeepers our first job in Spring is to check our hives overall health coming out of winter. A big inspection of each hive is done, individually looking over each frame in the brood nest, checking for pests and diseases such as the parasitic Varroa Mite and American Foul Brood. Varroa Mites are present in every hive and without monitoring and treatment they can very quickly cause the colony to die. The Varroa Mite reproduces in the brood nest, feeding on the larvae. As a beehive population expands during Spring so does the population of Varroa Mites living within the hive and feeding off the bees. We have to treat for Varroa Mites twice per season, generally in Spring before the honey flow and in Autumn after the honey flow. This means that during the honey flow there are no chemicals within the hive and it is at peak population and health.
During our inspections we also check to see that the queen has survived the winter and is in good form, laying lots of healthy eggs and keeping the hive nice and calm. If not then Spring is a good time to source a new queen to replace her and get things running smoothly before the honey flow begins.
If the Spring pollen and nectar sources are late and honey stores from last season are running low then extra feeding may be required in early spring. Beekeepers need to take a close note of the weather, once the population of a hive starts to expand in Spring if we experience a period of cold wet weather then the hives honey stores can be eaten up really quickly by all the extra mouths. If we need to supplement feed and we have spare honey on hand we will use this but if not we may rely on sugar syrup. It’s important to note that we don’t feed sugar syrup when the honey supers are on the hives, so you will not ever find sugar syrup in your jar of honey!
If you’re looking to plant a garden consider including some bee friendly trees and shrubs that can provide pollen and nectar to bees throughout the season. Trees for Bees is a great (free) online resource as well as Apiculture NZ and ofcourse we are happy to answer any questions you may have too!
Later in Spring the colonies space is monitored very closely and extra brood boxes (where the bees reproduce) may be added to the hive, taking the hive from a single brood box to a double brood box. As the hive population expands the bees require more space otherwise they will swarm in search of a new home. If the Spring is a particularly good one and there is a lot of pollen and nectar sources around the risk of swarming can increase. As beekeepers we like to control the swarming as best we can so that our hives do not become weak heading into the honey flow. Spring is a great time to expand our hives and is a management practice to control swarming too. We sometimes ‘split’ our strongest hives, meaning just that. A hive is split into two and a new queen is added to one. This means that the bees have more space and don’t see a need to find a new home.
One of our final jobs in late spring is to remove Varroa treatments and then we can begin to add honey supers to hives as the honey flow begins, ready for the bees to fill them up with liquid gold!