A beekeeper's first date

Spring is something we all look forward to - the biggest and the smallest. Spring brings beautiful emotions, fresh air, the first hot sun, but also a little anxiety. Especially for beekeepers. It is spring that shows how the bees have survived the winter, whether anything has happened to the queen, whether the colony has remained strong, whether there is enough food, whether the first brood is in abundance... A beekeeper's first meeting with the bees after the winter is a bit exciting and requires a lot of preparation, as it is necessary to inspect the queen and the bees, as well as to carry out the most important tasks of the spring, in the hive and in the surrounding area. So where to start?

To the hive in a T-shirt only

Yes, yes, you read that right. No, it's not to make you feel bad. It's that if the hive is opened too often, it gets colder, it's harder for the bees to keep the hive at a constant temperature, it increases the risk of disease, and it disrupts the life of the colony, which is far from being a good thing. Would you like a breath of cold air to tickle your tummy and warm your home? There is no point in poking around their houses, pulling out their honeycombs and imposing your own order. After our careless visit, the bees may have to repair their honeycomb and "repair" their home instead of taking the time to raise the next generation or prepare for nectar production. Snooping around the hive can injure the queen and the workers will have to raise a new queen, which does not bode well for the colony. And if you really want to assess whether the bees are getting enough food, lift a multi-storey hive by the edge of the hive and assess its weight and compare it with other hives. If you find a hive that is disproportionately light, feed the bees and wait for the first date in spring. The best time to meet the bees for a thorough assessment and to open the hives is when you can go to the hives in a T-shirt instead of a winter jacket (average air temperature ~15°C). This will not only not freeze the bees, but also not disturb their life rhythm.

Spring Cleaning

If you've already decided that it's a good time to go out in a T-shirt, you should start your greeting to the bees by cleaning up. Sad as it may be, in spring you will have to remove the bottom of the hive and clean out the dead bees. There should be a handful or two. The bees' departure is a natural part of the natural cycle, which slows down in the winter, as bees survive the winter for several months, and finally, having reared the next generation, taken care of the queen's well-being, and, in most cases, not even knowing what it means to produce honey, they go on their well-earned rest. So, after removing the bottom of the hive and saying goodbye to the bees, it is best to shake them into a container. After collecting all the bees from all the hives, we advise you to burn them to protect your hives from potential disease agents and to give a respectful farewell to nature's handmaidens.

Bees are real sticklers. They do most of the cleaning themselves: they "wash" the combs, reinforce the frames with pitch, throw all the dirt in the bottom of the hive or take it outside. This is why we need to pay extra attention to the bottom of the hive. As the hive is the place where not only food but also medicine is born, it is not a good idea to use any chemical or volatile substances that can soak into the wood. We therefore disinfect the bottom of the hive with fire. Every spring, we take a gas burner to the hives and give the whole bottom and sides of the hive a 'taste' of the flames. This is a time-tested, high-quality, cost-effective and the most environmentally friendly disinfectant.

The hive itself should also be put in some order. In spring, we review the frames with combs. If a new generation has hatched, you may find dark, old combs in the hive. It is best to replace them with new frames with wax plates, as old combs may also contain disease agents. It is useful to monitor the hives after the wax plates have been added. If the bees are getting stronger very quickly and are sewing new combs, the honey harvest will start soon. When new frames are added, it is also useful to observe how many frames are "covered" with bees. If it is more than two thirds, a honey store should be placed on the nesting floor just before the start of the harvest to give the bees a place to store the fruits of their labour. If only half of the frames are covered with bees, the colony should be reinforced with bees from another hive or wait until it is stronger on its own.

Food as medicine

Prepare the horns in spring and the food for the bees in autumn. Winter stores should be taken care of before the winter and not disturb the bees' rest during the cold season. Read more Feeding should start as early as the spring. The best way to stimulate the bees in early spring is with sugar syrup. Such stimulating feedings should be carried out every third day until the flowering of spring plants. Feed the bees with approximately 0,5 l of syrup twice a week. However, if it is an early spring with the promise of frost, the most effective way to feed the colonies is to feed them with a bite-sized dough with protein or with with pollen. This dough is frost-free, so bees will easily knead it even if the air temperature drops. Meanwhile, bees avoid sugar syrup when it is cold. However, it should be remembered that this dough should only be given to workers who have already swarmed and defecated. Kandi dough with with pollen can be disastrous for bees that have not yet emerged and moulted because it is too cold - they start to get diarrhoea in the hive and die. It is also worth knowing that bees that have fledged and started brood rearing consume up to 4 times more food, as the temperature of the hive needs to be raised for the new generation to grow up. That constant shaking of the abdomen certainly requires extra energy. Beekeepers must also have noticed that this winter (or rather in the autumn of the winter) the bees have consumed more food because they have not gone into full hibernation.

You may have heard that water is life. So, then. If you've been thinking that bees only eat nectar, we've got news for you - bees drink! And quite a lot. That's why beekeepers like to build their hives near bodies of water. If a bee is full of energy, it's no big deal for it to drink water from a pond, but if it's far from a pond, the little worker bee may not be able to get up once it's flown and drunk. In spring, as the hive is in full swing, the bees' need for water increases significantly. As they get very little water from nectar, we recommend that you build special watering troughs next to your hives, or "make your own" one. This will not only make the bees' work easier and faster, but will also ensure that no unfortunate bee will be blown away by an unfavourable wind or caught in a downpour and never return to the hive again.

Health is our most precious asset

And not just for us, but for the bees too. Diseases can reduce honey products the productivity of carriers, brood rearing or even the destruction of entire colonies. Varroa mites are particularly dangerous for bees, weakening their immune system. These mites are not easy to spot and beekeepers often claim that their bees are healthy. The mites attach themselves to the bees' bodies and, because of their similar colour to the bees' hairs, blend in well with the fly. Unfortunately, after taking medication against these mites, many people are surprised to find quite a large crop of them on the bottom of the hive. It is good to know that natural remedies have been developed for the spring fight against parasites and that every beekeeper can choose the most suitable ones. Most of these remedies are based on formic acid. Formic acid is a naturally occurring substance that bees are constantly exposed to. It is also important that it does not accumulate in the hive and does not enter the honeyso the produce stays healthy. Bees should be treated in spring, as soon as the little worker bees start to carry pollen on their legs and the weather is warm and pleasant for both bee and beekeeper. After the treatment, we monitor the mite drop and, if necessary, give a second treatment.

Help but trust

Bees have been around for hundreds and hundreds of thousands of years. They are one of the oldest species on Earth. That's why it's so important to learn to listen to these hard-working bees - they will always give you the right answers: bees fly and sew combs - wait for the heat, bees stock up - wait for the cold, bees fly to the hive early - wait for the rain. Little Honey They see, feel and know so much that we should sometimes learn from them. It is not uncommon to do more harm than good by wanting to do good and by interfering too much in the hive and in the bees' lives. So let us help, but let us also trust our bees, and we will enjoy this friendship for a long, sustainable and sincere time.