Thoughts on this month in beekeeping by Janine Sparks
MARCH 2025
1st March is the first day of meteorological spring – hurrah! And it looks like the weather is getting warmer! Indeed signs of spring are everywhere – and I am looking forward to getting into my bees at some point!
1. What is going on in the hive?
Bees will be flying every day this month if the weather is warm and dry enough – for cleansing flights, orientation flights and foraging. Keep checking the outside of your hives – there should be a steady flow in and out, and ideally pollen going in. The queen should be laying now so foragers are ready to go when the weather is consistently warm.
2. Check your hives
Check out the stores in your hives, as mentioned last month, this is a critical time for the hive when the queen is increasing her laying whilst last year’s bees are dying off, so they may need some extra help until the new foragers get going. The weather so far this year has been pretty chilly, so make sure you do what is needed to help them. Fondant is still the food of choice, unless the weather approaches a warm spell when you can start feeding a light syrup if this is necessary using a contact feeder over the brood nest (1kg sugar in 600ml water).
Do be cautious about rushing into your first inspection before it is consistently warm. If there is a warm day (above 15 degrees C) you could go in for a quick first inspection. Make it brief, just check
- Stores.
- scan the brood nest for signs of foulbrood and other brood diseases.
- check frames and the entrance for yellow/brown stains – some is normal but if there is a lot, it could be a sign of Nosema. You can read about what to do on Beebase – Nosema (nationalbeeunit.com).
- if you don’t see the queen, make sure you can see eggs and larvae in all stages.
- Do they have enough room? If not, add one of those ready prepared supers you have in your shed! If the colony is doing well, you could add a queen excluder between the brood box and the super.
Don’t forget to make records about what you see.
Mouse guards can be removed and replaced by a door later in the month. You could also add a varroa board so you can start monitoring varroa.
If the weather is constantly cold, however, do not go in! Leave it until the weather improves, frustrating though this may be!
If (like me) you have seen no activity around one of your hives, then do have a quick check for signs of life when you can. I will be doing just that this week when the forecast is warmer – and if my fears are confirmed and the hive has died, I will seal it up initially, do an autopsy to try and find out why it died, then clean it out and hope to repopulate it with a swarm or a split later on.
3. Get ready for silly season
Now really is the time to have a swarming plan ready to go, with a bullet point list of actions and the necessary equipment to hand! In my experience, signs of a colony thinking about swarming never happens at a convenient time, and having succinct notes and all the gear ready makes it much easier to handle. So think about what you want to achieve – do you want to increase your colonies, or keep to the number you have? Rather than be reactive, you could think about a prevention strategy such as the Demaree method which I am a fan of.
4. Check the larder
My garden is full of hope now with spring flowers beginning to appear! A joy to behold! Take some time to look at your planting, and what you can do to boost your bees’ larder for next year.
I have even seen some blossom out on trees nearby.
