 For a reason – some intensively care for colonies - others extensively  Spring & fall basic insp + X times  To control swarming  To super  To harvest  To overwinter successfully  To control pests including mites

 Sealed brood  Healthy brood  Capped honey cells  Eggs  Queen cups/no cells  Condition of cells  Condition of frames  Change from last insp  Management needed

 IDENTIFY WITH APPROPRIATE LETTER: Capped Brood; Drone Brood; Honey; Nectar; Pollen (likely position); Eggs (or where to look); Queen Cups/Cells. CBCB DB H Q Cups CB H P

 IS BROOD HEALTHY?  IS BROOD PATTERN OK?  IS COLONY QUEENRIGHT? CBCB DB H CB H P

 Can you find the queen below? Marked queens easier to find - when necessary L. Connor photos YES NO

Winter spring summer fall Help bees survive Assist colony buildup Reduce swarming Super colonies Consolidate

 January Begin emergency feeding with frames of honey, sugar candy, or dry sugar, if necessary. Clean, paint, and repair equipment. Check apiary for vandalism, hive covers blown off, and so forth. Order packages, nucs, queens, if not done in December. Consider your mite and disease management program and order/construct the necessary materials (monitoring boards, screen bottom boards, drone foundation, chemicals, and so on).   February Check colonies for honey stores. Continue emergency feeding with frames of honey, sugar candy, or dry sugar, if necessary. Continue to prepare equipment for coming season. Clean up dead colonies.   March Continue emergency feeding, if necessary. Feed pollen supplements or substitutes, if needed. First quick inspection of brood nest, if weather permits. Check for and clean up dead colonies. Clean out entrances and bottom boards. Assemble section honey supers.   April Monitor colony stores, especially if weather is cold and wet. Inspect brood nest for laying queen, disease, and so forth. Introduce package bees on drawn combs. Requeen colonies with failing queens. Reverse brood chambers when weather moderates. Add supers to strong colonies at the time of maple or dandelion bloom. Unite weak colonies. Equalize strength of all colonies.

Finish honey harvest Complete requeening management Monitor for varroa mites – began treatment (depending upon control choices utilized) Protect brood combs from wax moth

 Bees tell you Fall is here when they start kicking out drones.  Combine Weak Hives After medication is off, check for presence of queen and hive strength. Don’t combine weak with strong IF weak hive is diseased nor 2 weak together Combine using newspaper method.  Requeen if necessary It’s necessary to have a good laying queen through winter. Requeen if hive is queenless!! Requeen if brood pattern is spotty. Requeen if queen is old.

 Feeding to insure adequate food reserves or move queen/colony cluster position downward Note: One of many ways to feed sugar syrup FEED HEAVY SYRUP OR HONEY

Brood position In early Fall OPTIMUM COLONY CONFIGURATION We Learn to read stories about patterns

Moisture will kill bees…NOT cold! Locate hive out of the wind. Use screened bottom boards. Use screen tops with moisture collector. Burlap Straw Old towels, etc.

Reduce entrance so guard bees have more chance to ward off yellow jackets and robber bees from other hives. You should have screened bottom boards so even though the entrance is reduced, the bees have adequate ventilation. Put Yellow Jacket traps nearby. Good idea to include carbohydrate like apple juice in YJ traps. Also cat food.

 Run out of food reserves – starve  Too few bees to provide protection – freeze  Lack of ability to void wastes  Bee PMS or cumulative effects of mites and/or diseases  Sometimes they just die! Or Just disappear!

 Bee Culture $25/Year Online: , Ext  American Bee Journal $28/Year Online:

 Blackiston, Howland - Beekeeping for Dummies  Caron, Dewey - Honey Bee Biology & Beekeeping  Conrad, Ross - Natural Beekeeping: Organic Approaches to Modern Apiculture  Flottum, Kim - Backyard Beekeeper  Graham, Joe - Hive and the Honey Bee  Morse, Roger - ABC and XYZ of Bee Culture  Winston, M.L. - The Biology of the Honey Bee

 Chester County Beekeepers Assoc.  Montgomery County Beekeepers Assoc.  Newcastle County Beekeepers Assoc.  Philadelphia Beekeepers Guild  Pennsylvania State Beekeepers Assoc.  Delaware State Beekeepers Assoc.  Mid-Atlantic Apiculture & Ext. Consortium  Eastern Apiculture Society  National Honey Board