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Beekeeping
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Getting started

Your first year, month by month

By Dwight Davis, Founder

Updated

On this page9
The months below are for a temperate climate with a spring flow. Shift them earlier in the south and later in the north, and treat the sequence as fixed while the dates move.

How to read this

The order never changes: build up, watch for swarming, take the flow, treat mites, feed, weigh, leave them alone. What changes is when, and by how much, and your local association will know.

Winter before you have bees

Order bees. Packages and nucs sell out months ahead, and the good local nucs go first. Assemble equipment now rather than in a rush in April. Read, and find the nearest association.

Spring, installation

Install the package or nuc on a mild day. Feed 1:1 syrup, because a package has no stores and no comb, and keep feeding until natural forage arrives. Check in a week that the queen is laying, by looking for eggs rather than for her.

Then leave them mostly alone while they draw comb, which is the expensive thing they are doing.

Late spring into early summer

This is the attentive period. Inspect every two weeks through the swarm window, add space before they need it, and watch for queen cells.

A first-year colony often does not swarm because it is still building, but a strong nuc can, and the two-week rhythm is a habit worth forming now.

Summer

Supers on if the colony is strong. Then the dearth, when nectar stops and the colony gets defensive, robbing risk climbs and weight quietly falls.

Most first-year colonies produce no surplus honey, and that is the normal outcome rather than a failure. The colony spent the year building comb, at roughly eight pounds of honey per pound of wax. Year two is when a hive with drawn comb produces.

Late summer, the consequential month

Harvest if there is surplus. Count mites and treat, because this is when winter bees are being raised and their health decides the winter.

If there is anything to take, that is how much to leave first and harvest second, in that order.

Fall

Weigh the hive by lifting the back. Feed 2:1 syrup if it is light, while the weather still lets them take it down. Reduce entrances, fit a mouse guard, and make sure they are dry.

Winter

Leave them shut. Heft the back on a mild day to check weight. Watch the entrance for flight on a warm afternoon. Order next year's equipment, and read.

References

Penn State Extension. Honey Bee Management Throughout the Seasons. extension.psu.edu
eXtension Bee Health. Seasonality of Brood and Adult Populations; Beekeeping Equipment. bee-health.extension.org
University of Georgia Extension. Honey Bees and Beekeeping (B1045). extension.uga.edu
Written from published extension guidance, not from a laboratory. Local climate, local forage and the state of your particular colony override anything general said here.