Off We Go Again!

Winter is almost behind us, the Spring equinox approaches, and the extra hours of daylight quicken our pulses as we look forward to warmer days. March is a nervous month for beekeepers as we are close to being able to carry out gentle hive inspections and discovering quite how our bees have fared since we last saw them in autumn. If we are lucky we’ll have some balmy weather with ambient temperatures in the early teens, just enough to allow the bees to take cleansing flights and begin foraging for early pollen and nectar.

 

So why the nerves? It’s a bit like being an athlete on the starting line, waiting for the signal to go, or being an actor waiting to go on stage. We’re ready, we’ve made all the preparations, have all the equipment, now we just need to see the bees and assess the situation. Over the past few weeks we have been mending brood boxes, painting new crownboards, putting new foundation wax into frames, cleaning out smokers and sterilising hive tools – we have all the gear and hopefully some idea!

Lots of other preparations have taken place too, including tidying up the garden around our hives. Bees aren’t keen on power tools so any branches/brambles that were in the way of the hives have been cleared away before the bees are out in full force. We used to keep the grass in our apiary short but in recent years have allowed it (along with ferns!) to grow within reason as it seems to deter Asian hornets. These predators hover at hive entrances but if there is foliage blocking clear access then catching bees as they return home from a foraging flight becomes a little difficult for them. Why should it be easy to prey on our girls and boys?!

Setting off to carry out the first hive inspections of 2025, there is no reason to suspect that there will be anything wrong with our colonies. Our reasons for optimism are that we have checked their food stores and ensured that the queens were young and fertile when we closed up the hives for winter. We have monitored the levels of varroa mites and helped the colonies when they could do with a boost, so we fully expect to find our hives full of brood and bees. We also expect to find swarm cells, a good sign that the colony is doing well as it is planning on dividing itself to further the species. What we do on finding swarm cells depends on timing and our requirements. We can decide to do nothing and just leave the colony to swarm, although this has consequences – the bees may end up under our neighbours’ eaves, or the bees may continue to swarm with each newly-hatched queen bee so that we have no bees left in the original hive! Usually, all being well, we choose to leverage the natural swarming behaviour by splitting the colonies, effectively fooling them into thinking they have swarmed, without us losing them.

If there are no swarm cells – yet – then we hope to see plenty of healthy brood as the queen should be increasing her rate of egg-laying. If the colony build-up is slower than expected then there may be an issue and so we have to look for clues to identify it. The queen may be older, the level of varroa infestation may be inflicting too much of a burden on the bees, there may be dysentery or nosema in the hive, all of which can be resolved once detected.

As you can tell, we are nervous but also excited to start the beekeeping season. We can’t wait to welcome our bees to 2025 and hope that March, and the coming months, will provide us with the ‘right’ kind of weather – watch this space for updates!