The Beekeepers Seasons and Honeybee Activity (Part 4)

Months in this article relate to the northern hemisphere cool temperate climate.

MAY
In the Hive:

Brood rearing is in full swing. The bees are busy collecting pollen and nectar. To take advantage of an early honey flow, the brood chamber should be full of bees.

Jobs for the beekeeper:

The growing colony needs room, so introduce frames, as they are needed. In hives with supers these frames can be hung near the brood nest where they will be drawn out sooner. Once a frame has been drawn out, you can swap it for one on the outside. Every beekeeper develops his own working pattern for this, but the golden beekeeping rule is never to fiddle with the brood nest.

If, despite a good honey flow, a colony slackens off its building work, this is an indication that swarming may be imminent. In this case, put in empty combs so that the queen can lay immediately. As soon as there are bees on all the combs, it is time to consider whether the brood nest needs expansion. The brood nest can be extended by moving two or three frames of capped brood into a second deep box just above the queen excluder, making sure the queen stays below.

The capped brood frames are then replaced with foundation or empty drawn combs. Alternatively, the queen can be given access to a second deep or shallow box under the queen excluder, so that she can work over twenty or more frames.

Honey supers must be added ahead of the bees to give them house and storage room. Some beekeepers dispense with queen excluders. They take out frames of honey as the bees fill them, for extraction, and return them to the hive, or simply pile on more honey suppers if all the beeways are full of bees.

The honey flow from oil-seed rape can bring on a swarming impulse. If you want to stop the bees swarming, you may need to fit a special dividing board. As it is not always possible to stop swarming, you will have to be ready to cope with any swarms that do occur. It is also important not to forget about building up young colonies.