Spring Time
Feeding

• weather permitting, AND if hive is light,
  
• mid to late March or when temp is 45 to 50F,
  
• feed 1:1 sugar syrup if needed

Reversing Hive Bodies

• coming out of winter with bees in top deep,
  
• mid-April or at first dandelion bloom,
  
• weather permitting, sunny, over 50F,                                    
  
• clean bottom board of debris,
  
• rotate deep bodies,                                    
  
• if possible, quickly check frames and foundation,                                    
  
• replace damaged frames and/or foundation

Swarm Prevention

• early May,
  
• check # of frames of brood
  
• if 8 to 12 frames with solid pattern, with little room to lay, or if honey bound, consider making split or nucleus colony w/ 2 or 3 frames of brood and bees and one frame of honey and pollen
  
• may add queen or let the bees create own
  
• new colony must be fed

Honey Shallows   

• add in mid-May in over-wintered hives
  
• may add 2 at a time
  
• do not use queen excluder if undrawn foundation

Requeen 
When: May thru September
Why:

• age – over 18 months to 2 years
  
• poor brood pattern, spotty pattern
  
• aggressive behavior
  
• excessive drone brood (1 square inch = 16 drone)
  
• excessive or continuous chalk brood
  
• heavy varroa mite count – 100+ in 24 hr count

Disease Monitoring
Review Bee school manual

Varroa

• IPM Bottom Board
  
• coat sticky board w/ Crisco  -- take 3 day count
  
• confectioner’s sugar dusting  -- 1 cup per deep per month
  
• more often if varroa count over 50/day

• 3” x 19” corrugated cardboard strip inserted on bottom board
  
• change and destroy at each trip to hive
  
• check out various traps in catalogs
  
• using mineral oil and apple cider vinegar

Queen Cells
Do not just destory queen cells
Try to understand why they are there:

• supercedure – queen is poor or old (your decision whether to replace or let the hive raise their own)
  
• emergency – beekeeper killed queen by accident – order new 
  
• just because – Russians do this – ignore
  
• hive is about to swarm – here is one member’s helpful hint:
  • find the old queen first – expend her or recycle
    
  • take out all the frames and place an empty hive body on stand
    
  • shake all bees into new deep (do not shake the brood frames,   use a bee brush).
    
  • fill the deep box with new foundation and  feed the bees – install a new queen 24 hours later.
    
  • divide the remaining brood into weak hives, cutting out  queen cells using to replace failing queens or new split,
    
  • divide up the pollen and honey frames also.
    
  • have a second deep ready for original hive as they think they   have swarmed and will build out foundation very fast.

Summer/ Winter Management 
Review bee school manual and follow timely tips in monthly newsletter

After first frost, do not feed sugar syrup as the bees cannot expel the extra liquid due to cold weather and no flight. If the hive is light in stores feed sugar candy – recipes will be in winter newsletters. This is place directly on the frames near the cluster.