March

Plants are growing and there are spring flowers everywhere.
The bees have anticipated this time of renewal and have encouraged the queen to increase her laying rate so that the colony can build and take advantage of the new forage.
The colony is developing from the remnants of the old winter bees and it is a testing time and should the weather turn inclement the bees will need help to survive.
If you are in an area where early pollen is not available it may be necessary to feed pollen patties.
Beware of a sudden cold snap.
So be aware of the amount of stores and don’t put the queen excluder on too soon.

If there is a fine sunny quiet day when the temperature exceeds 12 degreesC you should take the opportunity to check all is well.
This inspection should be swift taking no more than 5 minutes and as the colony will be getting cold the bees may not be happy.
The objective of the inspection is to ensure that the queen is present and laying well, has room to continue laying and there are enough stores to last a couple of weeks into April.
Do have a smoker as the bees haven’t been disturbed for a few months.

Once you have access to the brood chamber remove a couple of frames to make space, then move frames into the gap and have a look at the faces of the frames to identify larvae. (you don’t need to find the queen as it is just a quick look to see how big the brood nest is)
You don’t even need to take out these frames as you should have enough space to look onto the faces.
Register the number of frames with brood, the number with adult bees on them and the state of stores(pollen and honey) if you think they are short of stores leave the fondant on.

Looking at your findings have a think about what you have found.
● No larvae probably means that there is not a queen in the brood chamber.
She may be dead or laying in the super you left on!
● You will probably have the same number of sides of larvae as sides covered with bees. More bees is good.
● You may have 5 sides (not frames) covered in brood. Any less and the colony is not building up well.
● There should be at least 5KG honey stores. Less and the bees should be fed fondant.

Having finished and decided on the state of the colony leave it for a few weeks.
Make sure you have enough equipment for your beekeeping plans and these need to be flexible as we have little control over the weather.

In the spring when colonies are rapidly building you have the opportunities to solve problems.
In late summer colonies do not have the time to prepare for winter if there is a setback.
April is the time to assess your colony health to make sure it is in good condition to thrive through the summer.
Try to keep in touch with other beekeepers.