MARCH 2026
After all that rain in January and most of February it has been lovely to see some drier weather and even some sun over the last week or so. 1st March is the first day of meteorological spring, and the appearance of some spring flowers, gives hope of brighter days ahead!
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 that foragers are ready to go when the weather is consistently warm.
2. Check your hives
Check out the stores in your hives – remember that 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 so wet and cold, so they won’t have been able to get out to forage; so make sure you do what is needed to help them. Fondant is still the food of choice (I am using candipolleen), 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 (1 kg sugar in 600 ml water).
Do be cautious about rushing into your first inspection before it is consistently warm. If there is a warm day (above 15 ºC) you could go in for a quick first inspection. Make it brief, just:
- check stores
- make sure that the entrance and floor isn’t clogged with dead bees(!)
- scan the brood nest for signs of foulbrood and other brood diseases
- check frames and the entrance for yellow/brown stains which could be a sign of Nosema
- see if you happen to spot the queen, otherwise make sure you can see eggs and larvae in all stages
- see whether they have enough room – if in doubt add one of those ready prepared supers you have in your shed with a queen excluder between the brood box and the super.
Don’t forget to record what you see.
Mouse guards can be removed / replaced with your usual entrance later in the month. You could also add a varroa board so you can start to monitor varroa.
If the weather is constantly cold and/or wet, 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 did so last week and heart-breakingly found that I have lost three hives (in three different locations) – full post mortem to follow, but my initial thoughts are that it has been so wet …… anecdotally I have heard of many people whose hives have not made it through the winter. I have certainly never experienced losses like this before.
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?
4. Check the larder
My garden is full of hope now with spring flowers beginning to appear. Take some time to look at your planting, and what you can do to boost your bees’ larder for next year.
