Annual Beekeeping Task Calendar for Small Beekeepers Spokane Area

January
Evaluate last year's colony performance and plan this year's activity. Plan to replace approximately 10% to 20% of your brood nest frames with new foundation. Determine what new equipment is needed to replace old worn or rotten beeware. Assemble and paint new equipment. Purchase or schedule the purchase of medications and mite treatment materials. Determine the amount of sugar and pollen substitute used from last year and plan when to make this years purchase. Work with other beekeepers to combine purchases to minimize expenses. Lift your colonies on the back on warm days to make certain they have sufficient stores. Colonies with excess stores may be robbed to strengthen others low on stores. Combine weak colonies with strong colonies. Use candy boards for feeding colonies if no honey frames are available. Clean up and store any equipment from dead colonies. Pay annual dues for your beekeeping organizations. Join local, state and national organizations to help keep abreast of new developments in beekeeping.

February
Assemble and paint new equipment. Finish repair of old equipment. Review and finalize plans for the year. Establish a schedule for your activities. Make certain your package or queen breeder has the quantity and ship dates for your package or queen orders. Check colonies again on warm days to make certain they have sufficient stores. Move frames of capped honey around. Dump granulated sugar above inner cover or bees that are starving and then get a candy board on them if no honey frames are available. Clean up and store any equipment from dead colonies.

March
Assemble and paint new equipment. Check colonies on warm days for adequate stores. Equalize stored honey in hives. Use granulated sugar above inner cover or dump on cluster for starving bees. Make up pollen patties with 10 to 20% real pollen that you trapped last year and a pollen substitute for the rest. Have the pollen patties ready along with sugar syrup for the first warm period in March or April. Give to the stronger colonies at the beginning of a warm period. Combine weak colonies with strong colonies. Check mite drop through screen boards. Treat colonies with high counts with oxalic acid dribble on clustered bees (note: not currently approved for use in bee hives). Treat only once. For good flight days open colony and inspect to see if queen is laying and still viable (no drone brood in worker cells). Kill drone laying queens and combine remaining bees with a fertile colony or introduce an overwintered nuc. Clean bottom boards and replace any old rotten equipment or equipment needing repair with new/repaired equipment. Do not put foundation on hives. Keep entrance reducer in place.

April
When bees are flying well inspect the hives. Check for and kill drone laying queens introduce overwintered nuc with stronger colonies or combine remaining bees with viable colonies. Check for American Foulbrood (AFB). Equalize stored honey in hives. Place 1:1 warm sugar syrup in a feeder in the upper brood chamber. Feed enough to provide at least 4 full frames of honey or syrup stores in the colony. Feed pollen patties if pollen is in short supply. Move the brood chamber having mostly feed to the bottom board with the box having empty brood combs to the top. For 3 brood chamber colonies move the empty boxes above the box with the most brood and bees. Keep some empty comb above the bees through the dandelion flow. Keep the entrance reducer on the colony. Start new packages, keep 1:1 sugar syrup feed on the package continuously until honey flow starts if started on foundation. If on drawn comb keep feed on until they don't want it. Check queen viability every 5 days. Replace immediately if she isn't laying properly or drone brood is appearing in worker comb. Don't give her a second chance!  Do not put foundation on hives. Keep entrance reducer in place.

May
Check for AFB. Boomer colonies (2 or 3 boxes full of bees and brood) must be split/reduced or they will swarm. Move box with queen and open brood to a new stand 6 feet or so away. Introduce a mated queen immediately into the box on the original stand. Reduce colony strength, on those not split, by moving frames of brood and bees to weaker colonies. Replace queens that exhibit poor laying performance or those going into their second honey flow year. Feed pollen patties if insufficient pollen is available. Check weekly for swarm cells. Cut swarm cells only if there is evidence of a good laying queen (lots of eggs). Split colonies with swarm cells that are determined to swarm moveing the box with the queen to new stand and leave cells in original stand. Keep switching brood boxes as top box gets full of brood. Keep checking new queens and package queens every 5 days for good egg laying. Replace new queen that is not laying properly immediately in the presence of nectar or syrup. Put 1:1 sugar syrup on during nectar dearth periods. First evidence of whitening comb put on new foundation in the top box. Add supers only if there is a substantial prolonged nectar flow. Start any swarms caught on foundation. Keep vegetation down around colonies.

June
Last spring checks for AFB before supers go on. Keep feed on during dearth periods (only before adding supers). Continue watching for swarm cells removing those in colonies where there is strong egg laying. Add supers as soon as comb whitening appears. Put supers on first then after bees are working in them put on your queen excluders if you wish to use them--make certain the queen is in the super. Add additional supers once the first supers are 75% filled. For new package bee colonies on foundation--keep feed on until the honey flow starts. Add supers only after the honey flow starts. Once new queen has been laying a month or so frequent queen performance checks can be ended. Add new foundation on strong colonies above brood chambers as soon as comb whitening appears. If bees do not start drawing out foundation replace with drawn super. Prepare queen cell builder colonies early in June. Use colonies for queen mothers that have wintered well, produced the most honey, are gentle, disease free and hygienic (do liquid nitrogen test on them). Place grafts in cell builder colonies once the honey flow starts. Break down weak colonies into nucs to put the queen cells in. Feed nucs during queen cell introduction and mating period. Keep feed on them as long as they will take it. Keep vegetation down around colonies.

July
Watch colony honey production and curtail additional supers once the flow is tapering off. Pull supers that are filled as soon as they are filled. Add additional supers only if the honey flow is going very well and the bees have filled the others. Honey flows from knapp weed will provide strong flows in some areas well into September but only in years with good moisture and rains in August. Alfalfa will provide slow flows in August to fill supers and provide winter brood chamber stores. For years that honey flow stops early in July, remove all of the honey supers and begin your fall work. Mark honey production on colonies by estimating the number of boxes on honey each produced. Mark colonies that need to have new queens.

August
Remove honey supers if the flow has ended. Mark production on each colony. Mark colonies that need to have new queens. Keep feed on nucs. Move stronger nucs into single hive bodies and keep feeding. On colonies with supers removed check for AFB and do natural mite fall counts. Get mite controls on as soon as temperatures permit. For years with poor honey flow conditions watch carefully for pollen and nectar availability. If conditions are poor prepare to feed both pollen and syrup starting in August. Remove all supers before the end of August in order to get mite counts and controls on before September. Introduce mated queens or nucs for those hives that need requeening. Put feed on the hive during introduction. Extract honey while it is hot outside--get it done in August.

September
Check for AFB. Check mite fall counts. When lots of brood hatches mite fall counts may be high. Check for signs of deformed wing virus--feed heavily if many bees with DWV are present, check mite falls with your medications--it might not be working and you will still have time to try another material. Replace any queens that may be poor with a nuc or mated queen. Introduce with feed on the colony. Feed a pollen substitute if there are no pollen stores. Feed 1:1 syrup if you are trying to build bees and 2:1 if you are trying to feed stores. Mix Fumigillen into your 2:1 feed, feeding about 2 gallons of feed for winter. Get all of the feed on by the end of September. Bees must have a cluster of at least 8" diameter to survive winter and minimum honey stores of 9 frames Russian bees even need less and can have a smaller cluster. Bees that are eager beavers on brood rearing will need an additional 3 full frames of honey.

October
Check for AFB. Check mite fall counts. Any additional feed can be put on early in the month but after about mid October the bees may not take any feed. Feed only 2:1 syrup with Fumigillen in it. Nucs can still be introduced but introducing mated queens is problematic--only introduce a mated queen if you first save the old one in the form of a nuc in case the new queen is not accepted. Colonies must face full sun during noon to 2 PM during winter period. Reposition colonies in bee yard late in October after most bee activity has ended. Remove mite control materials after exposure period has been reached. Reduce entrance to exclude mice (must be no higher than 3/8"). Make certain each hive has an upper entrance. Add 2" closed cell foam above upper entrance. Make certain that rain/water cannot run into brood chambers. Winter strong nucs in their 5 frame nuc boxes side by side with upper entrances and 2" closed cell foam above. Give them Ÿ" space above frame top bars to move around. Winter those nucs that fill the five frame box and have at least 4 frames of honey. Attend state beekeeping conferences.

November
Add capped honey frames to hives that are light. Hives that have too few bees should be combined with stronger hives. Colonies can be moved to winter locations early in November if desired. Once they are clustered it is best to leave them alone but for compelling reasons can still be moved at some loss of bees. Store all comb in cold to kill overwintering of wax worm larvae. Clean up all extracting equipment.

December
Watch colonies to make certain that water, snow and ice are not a problem. Clear off when necessary.