Example First Year Beekeeper's Calendar
This is a general guide to the process for managing a new nuc in a beekeeper's first year in the mid atlantic region.
The dates and operations are estimations. Weather, types of bees, local forage, disease, and many other factors can change these dates, but the general process of feeding, inspecting, and preparing for winter will remain the same.
This assumes Nuc or package arrival at the end of May. Arrival times may vary from producer and packager.
Add a small amount of ascorbic acid, vinegar, honey-b-healthy to sugar syrup to keep it from spoiling. 0.5 teaspoon of vinegar per gallon of feed is acceptable.
Make sugar syrup in advance, in 5 gallon buckets, using 2:1 (2 pounds sugar to 1 pound water - always by weight). 2:1 will not spoil as quickly as 1:1 syrup. Dilute when putting in feeder.
Month | Week | Operation | Notes |
June | 1 | Installation | Follow nuc or package installation process - package bees may be treated with oxalic acid before installation. You are going to have one brood box at this time, with 8 or 10 frames, the brood nest in the center, and new foundation on the outside. |
June | 1 | Entrance reducer | Set entrance reducer to smallest setting. |
June | 1 | Beetle Trap | Lay a dry, unscented swiffer pad in the top of the box, hanging out of the box 1cm. The bees will trap beetles in this swiffer pad. |
June | 1 | Feed 1:1 sugar syrup | Allow for 2 quarts per hive, per week, although this all may not be used each week. Do not allow interruptions in syrup supply, the goal is to provide a continuous food source. |
June | 1 | Feed small amount of pollen sub/patty. |
Feed a small piece of pollen patty or some protein source. 1"x1" square. This will provide additional protein needed for brood. Remove if not consumed within 2 weeks, as they may encourage small hive beetle breeding. |
June | 2 | Feed 1:1 sugar syrup | Depending on feed consumption rate adjust amounts. Inspect feeders and clean if mold develops. |
June | 2 | Feed small amount of pollen sub/patty. |
If bees are consuming the previously provided patty, continue to feed in the same manner. Do not put more pollen patty then the bees will consume in 14 days. |
June | 3 | First serious inspection. | Inspect your one brood box. The bees should be drawing comb rapidly, eggs should be present, capped brood. Nectar/syrup should be being stored as well as bee bread. |
June | 3 | Adjust store frames | Do not disturb or split up the broodnest this early. But you may notice that the bees are not drawing the outer frames of foundation out. You may rotate some of these frames in closer to the broodnest. |
June | 3 | Provide second box | If you're using medium equipment, you may find it time to add a second brood chamber. If 80% of your frames in the first box are drawn, you may add another box of foundation on top. If your bees are slow at drawing comb, delay this operation. |
June | 3 | Continue feeding | Continue feeding 1:1 and small amounts of pollen patty. |
June | 4 | Continue feeding | Continue feeding 1:1 and small amounts of pollen patty. |
July | 1 | Second inspection | Inspect your boxes. If you have two boxes now, you should see some brood in the top box and many frames drawn out. If no comb has been drawn in the top box, take two drawn comb (not brood) from the bottom box and move them up. These drawn comb may stimulate the bees into the next box. Check for eggs, larvae, brood, sugar/nectar, pollen stores. Look for signs of disease. |
July | 1 | Entrance reducer | Enlarge entrance reducer to second (larger) size. |
July | 1 | Second box (deep) | It may be time for a second box if you're running deep equipment. If 80% of frames in the brood box are drawn out then you may consider adding a second box of foundation. |
July | 1 | Beetle Trap | Change the swiffer pad in one box if it's completely full of propolis. If you are catching large numbers of beetles, place a swiffer pad in both boxes. |
July | 1 | Continue feeding | Continue feeding 1:1 and small amounts of pollen patty. |
Repeat 2 week cycles
July/August | 1 & 3 | Inspect | During these bi-monthly inspections you may find that it's time to add another box (3 mediums or 2 deeps total). You may find that you need to manipulate the frames a bit to get them fully drawn. Also - ensure that you are not accidentally overfeeding (difficult but possible) by having no room for brood, and everything full of capped sugar syrup. You will eventually want a brood area about the size of a basket ball, with pollen and honey on the sides and above. |
July/August | 1 & 3 | Continue feeding | |
July/August | 2 & 4 | Continue feeding | |
July | 1 | Mite inspection | Check for mites. Sugar / alcohol / ether roll. If mites are near treatment threshhold at this time of year, consider a softer treatment Apilife-var, hops based treatments. If mites are beyond treatment threshhold, consider a harder treatment : Thymol, Formic acid (temperature permitting). If mite populations are extremely high, consider a miticide, Amitraz/Apivar. |
July | 3 | Mite board | Remove mite board from the bottom of the hive for additional ventillation. |
August | 1 | Hive fully established- Inspection |
By this point, your hive should be fully established. You should have all boxes fully drawn (the outside of the outer frames may not be drawn out. You can rotate them inside if this is the case) You should have a very nice consistent brood pattern. You should have a lot of activity and bees coming and going. Your bees may be a bit touchy this time of year because of the dearth. You should see good stores of pollen and your top box should be heavy with stored syrup and honey. |
August | 1 | Robber screens | Install robber screens. |
August | 1 | Consider requeening. | Unlikely in your first year - but if you see queen problems, such as spotty brood, excessive drone, no eggs, or aggressiveness, consider replacing your queen. |
Continue to feed and inspect on 2 week cycles
August | 1 | Mite inspection | Inspect for mites again - ensure any treatment has been effective. If no treatment has been applied and mites are beyond threshhold for the test type used consider treating now. This is your last, best chance to treat for mites given that winter bee eggs will be laid soon |
September | 2 | Start 2:1 feeding | Continue pollen patties as long as they're taken. If your hives do not have at least 60 pounds of capped stores above and around the brood nest, you may start emergency feeding now. |
September | 3 | Continue 2:1 feeding | Continuing as long as hive is not honey bound and as long as bees take the syrup. |
September | 4 | Continue 2:1 feeding | Continuing as long as hive is not honey bound and as long as bees take the syrup. |
October | 1 | Continue 2:1 feeding | Continuing as long as hive is not honey bound and as long as bees take the syrup. |
October | 1 | Entrance reducer | Reduce entrance to smallest size. |
October | 1 | Install mouse guards | Install mouse guards - you may have both mouse guards and robber screens in place. |
October | 1 | Reinstall mite boards | If you removed your mite board for ventilation in July, replace it. |
October | 1 | Top entrance | Set inner cover in winter configuration and ensure the top entrance is open and unobstructed. |
October | 2 | Continue 2:1 feeding | Continuing as long as hive is not honey bound and as long as bees take the syrup. |
October | 3 | Install moisture protection | Install homasote boards, quilt boxes, newspaper, whatever moisture protection you choose. |
October | 3 | Ventilation | Ensure top entrance is unobstructed. The outer covers can slide back and forth and accidentally obstruct the top vent. I place rubber bumpers on my inner cover to prevent this from happening. |
Oct/Nov | 4/1 | Remove feeders | Remove top feeders or jars in the end of Oct, beginning of Nov. |
No more liquid food. If temperatures are below 50, generally the bees wont take it anyway. At this time light hives may be given sugar bricks or winter patties.
Mid November -> Early December |
Mite treatment | If you desire, you may apply oxalic acid liquid treatment during this period as long as the outside temperature is around 40-45 degrees. |
Monthly operations during winter
December | 1 | Food check | Check the location of the brood in the hive. Place sugar bricks or winter patties if brood is nearing the top of the hive. Try to pick up one side of the hive to see its weight. If the hive is becoming light, be more vigilant about supplimental feeding (bricks and patties). |
January | 1 | Food check | Check the location of the brood in the hive. Place sugar bricks or winter patties if brood is nearing the top of the hive. Try to pick up one side of the hive to see its weight. If the hive is becoming light, be more vigilant about supplimental feeding (bricks and patties). |
February | 1 | Food check | Check the location of the brood in the hive. Place sugar bricks or winter patties if brood is nearing the top of the hive. Try to pick up one side of the hive to see its weight. If the hive is becoming light, be more vigilant about supplimental feeding (bricks and patties). |
February | 3 | Food check | Check the location of the brood in the hive. Place sugar bricks or winter patties if brood is nearing the top of the hive. Try to pick up one side of the hive to see its weight. If the hive is becoming light, be more vigilant about supplimental feeding (bricks and patties). |
February | 3? | Quick inspection | Based on the weather, temperature, wind, you may perform a quick inspection. If the temperature is over 60 degrees, sunny, and not windy, you may pull a few brood frames and see if the queen is laying and if you have capped brood. By this time you should have some capped brood. |
February | 3? | Stimulate | If you have few eggs, or little capped brood, you may decide to stimulate at this point with some 1:2 syrup (1 part sugar, 2 part water). If you do stimulate, you must keep food on until the nectar flow, and also must be vigilant about swarming. |
March | 1 | Open pollen | Place open pollen feeders out for bees to start storing pollen and more rapidly raise brood. |
March | 1 | Food check | Check the location of the brood in the hive. Place sugar bricks or winter patties if brood is nearing the top of the hive. Try to pick up one side of the hive to see its weight. If the hive is becoming light, be more vigilant about supplimental feeding (bricks and patties). |
March | 2 | Food check | Check the location of the brood in the hive. Place sugar bricks or winter patties if brood is nearing the top of the hive. Try to pick up one side of the hive to see its weight. If the hive is becoming light, be more vigilant about supplimental feeding (bricks and patties). |
March | 3 | Entrance Reducer | Increase entrance reducer size to larger size. Remove mouse guard and robbing screen. |
March | 3 | Food check | Check the location of the brood in the hive. Place sugar bricks or winter patties if brood is nearing the top of the hive. Try to pick up one side of the hive to see its weight. If the hive is becoming light, be more vigilant about supplimental feeding (bricks and patties). |
March | 3 | Swarm management | Ensure adequate broodspace. If bees are at the very top of the hive, consider reversing your hive bodies to provide vertical room to store and rear brood. |
At this point, especially when maple starts to bloom, natural pollen and nectar sources are starting. When dandelion flowers are present, consider adding honey supers.
April | 1 | First thorough Inspection | Perform a thorough inspection. Based on population consider a mite check. Check brood patterns and look for signs of other disease. |
April | 1 | Swarm management | Ensure adequate broodspace. If hive is becoming crowded, provide a queen excluder and a honey super. Check for swarm cells, queen cells with eggs, or primed queen cells (with royal jelly). If you see these, take swarm precautions. (artificial swarm, split, queen removal, more space). |
April | 1 | Mite treatment | If you found a mite problem during your inspection, this is the last chance to treat before putting on honey supers. Formic acid is effective at this time of year. |
April | 2 | Entrance reducer | Consider removing entrance reducer completely if hive is extremely active. |
April | 2 | Honey supers | Place your queen excluder and honey super on your hives. |
April | 3 | Check for swarm cells | Tilt up hives and check for swarm cells on the bottom of the frames. |
April | 3 | Honey supers | You could be adding one honey super per week at this time of year. |
July | 1 | Remove honey supers | Remove your honey supers - You may leave uncured supers on for another week or two hoping the bees will cure and cap it. |
July | 1 | Mite inspection | Check for mites. Sugar / alcohol / ether roll. If mites are near treatment threshhold at this time of year, consider a softer treatment such as Apilife-var or hops-based treatments. If mites are beyond treatment threshhold, consider a harder treatment like thymol or formic acid (temperature permitting). If mite populations are extremely high, consider a miticide, Amitraz/Apivar. |
July | 3 | Feeding | Start feeding 1:1 syrup and pollen supplement at this time, |
You may repeat the previous year's cycle from this point.