Spring for beekeepers usually begins at the end of March, when the sun is gaining strength: in the afternoon the snow melts and green sprouts of grass appear on the first thawed patches. At the same time, catkins bloom on willows, birches and hazel – a source of early pollen and nectar.
We wrote in detail about all the works in each of the spring months in separate articles. These will be linked below. And in this review we will touch on the general features of the maintenance of an apiary in the spring and advice from experienced beekeepers on this topic.
The content of the article
- 1 Tips for getting out of wintering and flying
- 2 Inspection and feeding advice
- 3 Tips for cleaning bee houses
- 4 Tips for transplanting into a new hive
- 5 Tips for Fixing Weakened Families
- 6 Family Building Tips
- 7 Tips for dividing a strong family into two
Tips for getting out of wintering and flying
If the hives are outside:
The upper and lower entrances should be wide open on the first warm day. For this purpose, the barriers are completely removed from them for the entire sunny period of the day. And the cracks are carefully cleaned with a poker made of steel wire. These measures will allow the bees to fly around properly.
By the evening, the entrances are reduced: the upper half, and the lower one by two-thirds.
To exclude the death of bees, puddles with melt water at the point are carefully covered with straw, spruce branches or pieces of plywood, boards.
By the nature of summer and bowel movements, one can judge the state of the families. Strong nests fly out together, leaving thick fecal matter in the snow around the hive. Insects from weakened families fly out one by one, many defecate on the walls and the landing board – traces of diarrhea are clearly visible here, which indicates infection with nosematosis.
An uncooperative summer is typical for nests that have lost their queen or most of the worker bees during wintering. Insects from hives affected by various pests, primarily moths, mice behave in the same way.
If the lap is moldy, it must be replaced. But since it is glued to the honeycomb with the help of propolis, they begin to peel it off from the left edge of the nest, where the feeder is installed – this is about the 7-8th frame. The uterus at this time is in a cube on the 3-4th frame.
Weakened nests need additional insulation and feeding. For this, the extreme empty combs are removed, and a feeder with syrup warmed to room temperature is installed. The nest is carefully insulated from cold air using mattresses.
If the hives are in the winter house:
Indoors, the air warms up faster than outside. Here bees wake up at the end of February and begin to buzz alarmedly. To calm them down, you need to ventilate the winter house at night, thereby reducing the room temperature to +4 degrees.
If the weather is abnormally warm and spring is early, it is better to put the hives outside. This will avoid mass death of insects from steaming.
Bee houses can be protected from temporary bad weather with cone-shaped roofing material.
Inspection and feeding advice
Silent hives are examined first! This behavior indicates the dysfunction of the bee colony. If, after opening the house, bees are found sitting in an unopened club, the frames and walls are carefully examined. There should be no traces of diarrhea, mold, putrefactive odor, massively dead insects at the bottom. Then a warm top dressing is given in the trough, insulation is made. You can put a warm heating pad under the mattress for a day. The holes open only one third.
Possible reasons for the lack of overflights even on fine March days with open entrances:
- weakening or death of the bee colony;
- uncleaned entrances – there is a pore, the passage is blocked by the tip of the lap, by the rail;
- “Sleep” of a strong family;
- inattention of the owner – the flight took place in his absence.
Tips for cleaning bee houses
Inspection always starts from the side of the nest where there are no brood frames.
All work is done as quickly as possible! The optimum air temperature for cleaning the hive is from +12 degrees. Usually in central Russia, this weather occurs in mid-April.
Cleaning procedure:
- the mattress is removed;
- ceilings are removed;
- part of the canvas is turned away;
- empty combs and frames with defects are removed: mold, moths, traces of mouse teeth;
- with the bottom is considered rest;
- the walls and bottom are wiped with a damp cloth to remove dust containing infectious agents and mold;
- brood frames move and order is established in the place where they stood;
- then the frames are returned to their place;
- honeycombs are substituted with honey warmed up in the house, or a feeder with thick syrup is installed (in total, 1-2 feed frames need to be added to the nest);
- the hive is insulated and closed, the entrance gaps are reduced by two-thirds.
Tips for transplanting into a new hive
Sometimes water gets into the bee house, mice, martens, moths enter. In this case, it is better to transplant the bees into a dry and clean house, pre-calcined with a blowtorch.
This is done like this:
- Behind the hive, a clean house is placed on a stand close to it. The gap between the hives is covered with a canvas so that insects do not fall on the cold ground.
- The entrance is kept closed in the new house. At the same time, the covers are removed from both houses.
- A honey-feather frame is installed in a new hive and dried for future brood.
- In the house with the bees, the canvas is pushed back and some smoke is blown over the frames.
- Then the brood frames are transferred, quickly scraping off adhering debris with a chisel. And they clean the frames over the old hive! And the bees are shaken off them with a soft brush into a new house.
- Be sure to clean the hangers of the frames from propolis, since they are poorly installed in a new place.
- After transfer, the formed nest is covered with a clean canvas.
- Honey-pepper frames are substituted at the rate of 8 kg of feed for every 3-5 cells occupied by bees. Or install a 4-liter feeder. Fresh sugar syrup is added to it after about two weeks.
- The remaining bees are carefully swept with a brush or goose feather from the bottom and walls of the old house onto a sheet of cardboard, and then poured under a canvas into a new hive.
- The nest is closed, insulated with upper and side mattresses, and a lid is installed.
- The holes are wide open. After flying around, the slits are reduced by two-thirds.
Tips for Fixing Weakened Families
If the bees sit tightly in the club, you shouldn’t bother them. The quality of the uterus and its presence in the nest are determined by other criteria. A well-performing queen bee sows a lot and without skipping. And the absence of an open brood and a weak supply of pollen indicates the death of the uterus in winter.
It is better to remove old females with frayed wings, and combine the nests with other families with a fetal uterus.
A family with an implanted uterus should not be disturbed! Otherwise, the bees can kill the new “queen”. The nest is inspected nine days after replanting when the fresh brood is sealed.
Family Building Tips
If the weather in April-May is dry, it is important to install drinking bowls with water at the rate of one for 3-5 hives in order to save energy for the worker bees. With an increase in the number of brood in colonies, flying insects quickly wear out. Drinking bowls, placed in warm, sunny places, well protected from the wind, allow you to avoid mass death of insects in windy weather.
In case of recurrent cold weather, it is necessary to reduce the tap holes! In fine weather, they are left open to their full width.
Insulation in the Northwest is not removed until early June, so as not to chill the brood.
For the cultivation of young animals, honey-pepper frames are inserted into the hives, which have been kept by the beekeeper since the fall. At the same time, it is important not to forget that short-term freezing of feed leads to the loss of valuable qualities of honey and bee bread. Fodder combs are stored at a room temperature of at least zero degrees! Dry bee bread, not covered with honey, must be sprinkled on top with powdered sugar in the fall.
Blooming bushes of hazel, birch, willow serve as a source of bee bread in early spring. It is from such pollen that young bees make larval food. The lack of bee bread is evidenced by the larvae thrown out of the nest. This happens if there is a protracted spring with cold weather (sometimes blizzards), and the beekeeper forgets to substitute the honeycomb with the bee bread for winter storage in time.
Warming of nests can be partially removed when fruit shrubs bloom in mid-May – edible honeysuckle, gooseberries, currants. To maintain the thermal regime, a thin mattress filled with sphagnum moss is left on top of the frames.
It is forbidden to put new frames in the center of the nests! This leads to disruption of the brood rearing sequence.
In cold and windy May, stimulating feeding is provided. A syrup is made from one part sugar and two parts water. Top dressing allows the “queen” not to slow down the egg laying rate.
Shops with dry land are put up from the end of May. If the family is weak, there is no need to rush to install the second building. Better to let the bees grow their families first.
Tips for dividing a strong family into two
A month before the start of the main honey collection (in the North-West this is the 15th-20th of May), the following family reshuffle is performed:
- At noon, a beehive with foundation and dry land is placed in front of a strong nest.
- The queen and three or four frames with brood of different ages are removed from the nest – they are placed in the middle of the new nest.
- The old hive with the rest of the brood is transferred to another place, and a new bee house is lowered onto its support.
- In the evening, all the flying bees will return to their new house – the family will quickly begin to gain strength.
- A new queen or a sealed queen cell (attached to the honeycomb) is issued to the old hive. This family is also growing very quickly.
You can find out more about work in the spring months here:
What to do in the apiary in March
What to do in the apiary in April
May at the apiary – a brief overview of the work
