January

• Watch for signs of starvation and take advantage of any warm, over 50-degree days, to feed hives that have no stores.

• Winter feeding is tricky and often is a failure. Best way to feed is before winter. You may want to transfer frames or supers of honey directly over the brood box it is a best way of winter feeding. IF no disease-free honey is available, “winter patties”, fondant, sugar bricks, or candy boards are very good options.

• If bees are flying a lot in winter, they will be eating food faster. Keep close tabs on hives to make sure enough food is available.

• When it is very cold, feeding is not easy to accomplish. Recognize you must be proactive early to save any weak hives that do not have enough stores.

• If weather is warm, you may see some pollen in some areas. Supplementing with pollen substitute may not be the best thing for hobbyist beekeepers because you may build up too quickly and end up with an early swarm to weaken your hive. At this time of year, you mostly only need honey or sugar water for feed.

• Get brushed up on your spring plan and when you need to implement your plans. Club meetings and bee schools will greatly assist you in planning for your spring buildup.

• If you have not already done so, PAY YOUR DUES. These dues repay you many times over with quality programs and mentoring.

February

• Watch for signs of starvation and take advantage of any warm, over 50 degree days, to feed hives that have no stores.

• Winter feeding is tricky and often is a failure. Best way to feed is before winter. You may want to transfer frames or supers of honey directly over the brood box it is a best way of winter feeding. IF no disease free honey is available, “winter patties”, fondant, sugar bricks, or candy boards are very good options.

• If bees are flying a lot in winter, they will be eating food faster. Keep close tabs on hives to make sure enough food is available.

• When it is very cold, feeding is not easy to accomplish. Recognize you must be proactive early to save any weak hives that do not have enough stores.

• If weather is warm, you may see some pollen in some areas. Supplementing with pollen substitute may not be the best thing for hobbyist beekeepers because you may build up too quickly and end up with an early swarm to weaken your hive. At this time of year, you mostly only need honey or sugar water for feed.

• Get brushed up on your spring plan and when you need to implement your plans. Club meetings and bee schools will greatly assist you in planning for your spring buildup.

• If you have not already done so, PAY YOUR DUES. These dues repay you many times over with quality programs and mentoring.

March

• Check for adequate upward ventilation.

• If there is moisture underneath the inner cover, put shims on topside of inner cover for vent.

• Evaluate food stores

• Do the lift test for at least 15 lbs. honey in super, if less then feed either by transferring a few frames of honey from another hive, pail feeding, baggy feeding with one part sugar and one part hot water to dissolve. Place right above cluster.

• Check for brood and bees

• If eggs or brood are seen, the queen is alive, no need to find her on this initial check

• Remove dead-outs, salvage/clean/store

• Varroa mite check using an alcohol wash or powdered sugar roll (Decide whether to chemically treat or not. If so, chemicals must come out before mid-April). Alternatives are powdered sugar dustings, splits, drone brood capture, hygienic bee rearing

• Pollen patty feeding only if you are in a dearth area for pollen. Red Maple /Willow/ is usually blooming this time of year.

April

• MONITOR FOR VARROA using an alcohol wash or powdered sugar SHAKE.

• Watch for buildup. Swarming season approaches. Equalize brood amongst hives to help weak colonies. Check for honey-bound hives by moving frames of drawn comb in central brood nest. Possibly make splits or Nucs from those strong colonies with queen cells.

• In preparation for the “Spring flow” it is time to get your supers by the 15th of April. The bees are in brood nest expansion and possible swarming if crowded.

• Air out supers (remove from Paramoth crystals if stored that way) for putting on in mid-April

• Prepare bait hive for swarm capture and have extra equipment on hand

• Above 60° mid-day

• Check brood, queen, and pollen stores

• Move empty (not honey-laden) peripheral frames in from outside to expand the brood nest

• Equalize (1 – 2 frames of) brood to boost very weak colonies

• Feed dilute 1:2 syrup via top feeder to stimulate brood rearing only if you have a weak hive or less than 15 pounds of honey. It may increase chance of swarming.

• Clean bottom screen

• Set bait hives to capture swarms and check frequently

• Air out supers (remove from Paramoth if used) put one or more drawn comb on each hive about April 15.If using foundation, put only one super on at a time until it is drawn out.

• Check brood and queen two or three times for swarm cells along the bottom bars of the frame. (If you see them it is too late to prevent them from swarming but you can still cut out all queen cells, reorganize the brood chamber to make more room or make splits

• Order queens and make splits or Nucs from those strong colonies

• Put a queen excluder between the brood chambers and the super a week after the bees have put something in the super (to coax them through it)or move some honey frames into super in the middle

• Super again w/ either foundation or drawn comb if you have it in anticipation of major storage needs

May

• MONITOR FOR VARROA using an alcohol wash or powdered sugar SHAKE.

• Check brood nest, if honey bound, take out and replace with drawn comb or wax foundation to continue to give the queen a place to lay

• Equalize hives by giving some frames of brood to weaker hives

• Super again w/ either foundation or drawn comb in anticipation of major storage needs

• ALL chemicals should be gone from the hive

• Second week of May flow begins

• Check and add supers as month goes by, move less full peripheral super frames into the middle of the existing super

• Check spacing in supers (9 frames equally spaced instead of 10 helps the beekeeper when honey extraction occurs later)

• Disturb bees only minimally if at all while honey flow is on

June

• MONITOR FOR VARROA using an alcohol wash or powdered sugar SHAKE.

• As flow comes to a close, prepare to extract fully capped frames from supers or cut comb. Frames with uncapped honey will lead to a product with a high moisture content and possible fermentation.

• Clean and repair equipment, replace foundation if necessary

• Excellent time of year to make splits/Nucs for Varroa control and to overwinter.

• Winter prep begins NOW! Plenty of food, young queens, and LOW Varroa counts, less than 2%.

July

• MONITOR FOR VARROA using an alcohol wash or powdered sugar SHAKE.

• Make sure you have drawn comb if honey super is placed directly over queen excluder. Bees will not draw out foundation place directly over queen excluder.

• Make plans to extract spring honey. This means making sure you are on the schedule if you need to rent the club extractor.

• Purchase or have ready supers to add as needed. Drawn comb can all be put on at once, and foundation should be placed on just as it is needed to prevent them chewing it up. Put foundation on when the super below is about 75% full.

• Make plans for treatment options for Varroa mites after the Spring flow ends. If you are using chemicals, know which ones and what restrictions and requirements you will have. Purchase ahead of time.

• Splits, one effective method of controlling Varroa, should be made around the Summer Solstice to have the best chance of building up and surviving the Winter.

• Leave enough honey on your hive to get through the Summer Dearth, usually the end of June until the middle of August, at least one super of honey.

• If re-queening hives, plans should be made early in the month to order queens so they will be available.

• Watch for Robbing behavior during the Summer Dearth.

August

• MONITOR FOR VARROA using an alcohol wash or powdered sugar SHAKE.

• August is usually the beginning of a Fall flow here in NE Ohio. Goldenrod and Aster bloom this time of year and are the main nectar flows, depending on whether or not there was any rain earlier in the Summer.

• August is the LATEST month to assess the level of mite infestation using an alcohol wash or Sugar SHAKE . Mite threshold depends on your hive strength.

• For those of you that will be treating, careful assessment of the type of treatment and appropriate temperatures for treatment. Some treatments will have to wait because August is too hot.

• For those that do not treat, Early August is the latest time to split for Varroa treatment so the split will have time to build up before winter. One must make the split strong and feed, feed, FEED.

• Splits can be put in a Nuc for backup in case your hive does not make it through the winter.

• This August is probably going to be unusual in that feeding will be needed for most hives in this area, check your hives carefully. Starvation is possible with the dearth of nectar we have had this summer.

• Re-queening now is good if you can find a suitable queen.

• Make plans for feeding in the fall and find sources of feed in case the fall flow does not come in.

• Make plans for next spring by getting early orders for bees, equipment, and queens.

• Watch for Robbing behavior during the Summer Dearth.

September

• Continue to make sure your bees are “fed up” with at least 90 lbs. of surplus for a colony.

• Apply those treatments like Formic Acid which cannot be applied at higher temperatures

• If you are feeding with a hive top feeder, you will have to go to another method by the end of September, because when weather gets cooler the bees stop using hive top feeders

• Remove your queen excluders by the end of the month.

• Continue to make sure your hives are queen right. If a hive is queenless, you may not be able to find a queen this time of year. If not, you can combine with a healthy hive using the newspaper method

• Monitor bees to see if any golden rod or aster nectar is coming in. If it is you may want to super for it. This can be sold as a “Varietal Honey” and can command a higher price. If not, start feeding as much as the bees will take!

• Remove all frames with just foundation, the bees very rarely draw comb this time of year.

• Continue to evaluate the past season, make plans for next season and get your orders in early for bees, queens, and equipment

• Nucs and weak hives should have the inserts put in place on the screen bottoms by cool weather. Stronger hives will be fine left open

• Watch for Robbing behavior

• Install Mouse guards; make sure that mice haven’t already moved in before installing.

October

• If you are moving your bees from a summer forage area, make sure you bring them to a location that is exposed to the sun and facing in a general south to east direction if possible.

• Make sure good air drainage is available to the colony. You do not want them on top of a hill nor in a bottom. Top of the hill is too windy, and bottoms tend to pool up cold air. These considerations are especially important in the winter.

• Make sure the colonies are on good sturdy stands that are not susceptible to rot and will keep the bottom board dry.

• Continue to feed bees to make sure they are fed up before true winter makes feeding difficult. Top feeders will become useless this month, usually.

• When feeding honey, it is preferable to feed honey from your own apiary from bees you know to be disease free. If you are not sure, transfer of honey can spread disease.

• If you do not have either a natural or artificial wind block behind your hives, you may want to consider constructing a privacy type fence to keep those cold northern and western drafts off of your colonies.

• Though controversial, if you are doing preventive antibiotic treatments for foulbrood, the treatment should be administered in October. 3 treatments, 7 days apart using powdered sugar and Terramycin. (Hygienic bees are also foulbrood resistant)Remember that use of antibiotics, when not needed, can cause antibiotic resistant foulbrood spores to develop. Other options for dealing with potential foulbrood may be better in the long run.

• Monitor weak colonies to re-queen or, if the colony is too weak, even combine with stronger colonies. Pollen substitutes can be used to stimulate weaker colonies to produce brood for overwintering, but very small portions should be used and monitored for hive beetles or wax moths. Artificially stimulated colonies that do not produce brood may need a new queen.

• Continue to formulate our plan of action for spring by building, purchasing or budgeting for future ordering of equipment.

• Place orders of find out when you can place orders for Nucs, and queens. Place those orders as soon as possible to assure your best chance of actually getting what you need.

• Paint your equipment and store away unused equipment in a pest resistant situation.

November

• Continue to get your hives ready for winter while the weather is favorable by feeding those hives that need feed. If still lacking winter stores, you can feed with frames of honey, or some type of “hard” food, (fondant, candy boards, sugar bricks, etc.), placed directly on the top bars of the brood nest.

• If you have not already done so, you need to make sure you have removed the queen excluders if part of the winter stores are above the excluder (unless you are one that accepts the risks of leaving them on).

• Entrance reducers should be put in place at this time if not already.

• Continue to check to be sure there is enough honey for the winter. Visual inspection or the lift test should tell you if you have at least 90 lbs. of honey stores.

• Make sure, if you have Nucs or weak colonies, to put the bottom cover on screened bottoms.

• Continue to read and make plans for your next season by listing needs, making financial arrangements for your needs, checking out options for meeting equipment and bee needs.

• Write out a proposed plan for what you want to accomplish next season and prepare to carry it out.

• Pay your dues for the upcoming year. The dues you pay now will pay you back many times over in education and mentoring next year.

• Find out how you can help our club be a better club for everyone.

December

• By December, your bees should have enough stored away to get through the winter.

• You should generally avoid going into your hives in December. If you need to go into them anyway, make sure it is a day above 50 degrees F and not windy. Make sure to get in and back out quickly without disturbing the cluster.

• If still lacking winter stores, you can feed with frames of honey, or some type of “hard” food, (fondant, candy boards, sugar bricks, etc.), placed directly on the top bars of the brood nest.

• If your hive is weak, make sure the cover is on the bottom board.

• Continue to paint equipment that is stored away.

• Make sure any comb that has had brood in it is store so that moths will not damage. Freezing and placing in a sealed garbage bag is excellent.

• Pay your dues for the upcoming year. The dues you pay now will pay you back many times over in education and mentoring next year.

• Find out how you can help our club be a better club for everyone.