Before winter, you'll help your bee colony get settled and snug for the long cold spell ahead.
As winter hits, monitor your hives for wind damage frequently, and check openings to make sure there is ventilation. Your bees can tolerate cold, but sealing the hives entirely can cause condensation that will devastate the population.
As winter begins to approach spring check on them on warmer days by quickly opening the top of the hive to make sure the bees have enough honey for food. If they are out of food, place pollen patties or another form of food in the hive.
Order new equipment and bees. Normally late February or early March is the latest date you can make these orders in time for spring.
Spring is the time to get new bees and start a hive! Read up in late winter on beekeeping, plan your hive, buy or build it, and start going to those local beekeeping clubs.
Keep feeding the bees if necessary. They will have consumed most of their honey stores over winter, and you must make sure they have food until blooming flowers are present to provide nectar.
Make sure you keep feeding the bees, as they will have consumed much of their honey stores over the winter.
Position an empty hive or two in case some of the bees swarm and are looking for new homes. If you don't do this, you could lose bees that travel elsewhere. Spring is the time when bees swarm and travel.
These bees, which were imported to North America to pollinate crops, are easy to distinguish from native bees by their colouring, which is golden brown with black abdominal stripes. The honeybees you'll see are female workers. Look closely at them, and if they've been visiting flowers you will notice yellow pollen on their legs. As the bees collect pollen, they move it across their bodies and to their legs where they place it in little baskets.
They get their name because they've evolved with native blueberries, and their bodies have become a perfect fit for bell-shaped blueberry flowers. While they're excellent pollinators for blueberries, they also pollinate other plants. Blueberry bees nest in the ground, especially near blueberry plants once they find them.