Essential Spring Jobs for Kiwi Beekeepers

After a long, rainy New Zealand winter, the first signs of spring are finally here. Among the lambs, fresh green leaves and budding flowers, you might also notice bees buzzing around in search of nectar.

Bees don’t exactly hibernate in winter, but they do slow down significantly. Because there’s very little nectar available in winter, bee colonies eat stored honey to get them through and stay in the hive most of the time. They beat their wings to keep the hive warm, and egg-laying slows down or stops, reducing the size of the population.

In spring, warmer weather triggers the queen to start laying again, and workers emerge from the hive to gather nectar. Early spring can be a risky time, as the colony can run out of stored honey before adequate nectar is available – which can mean starvation and collapse. It can also make your hives weaker and more susceptible to infestation or disease.

On the other hand, booming bee numbers and increasing honey production can lead to bees running out of hive space and swarming.

If you’re a beekeeper, keeping your bees healthy through spring means looking out for signs of swarming, infestation or starvation, and acting quickly. Miss a check or a task, and your bees could be in trouble.

Get started with our spring beekeeping checklist:

Early spring

  • Check hives at least once every 10-14 days, starting at the end of winter. Pick warm, dry days to minimise disruption.
  • Look for new egg cells, eggs, and brood – these show that your queen is strong and healthy. Lack of eggs can indicate that your queen has died or disappeared, which means you may need to source a new queen from a breeder.
  • Check the brood pattern for symptoms of disease or infestation – sunken, dark, dry, or greasy brood cells. Patchy, irregular brood is also a bad sign.
  • Check hives regularly for signs of swarming – generally this could be a high population, queen-cell building and/or full queen cells. There are many articles on why swarming occurs and techniques to help prevent swarming, so it’s best to read up on this as a separate topic!
  • Think about splitting your hive. Splitting you hive not only increases your apiary size but can also help to reduce the urge to swarm by reducing overcrowding.
  • Check frames to make sure your bees have enough to eat – if supplies of honey or pollen are low, supplement with sugar syrup or pollen supplements.
  • Examine the hive entrances and look for dead bees. A few are normal, but high numbers could be a sign of weak or diseased bees.
  • Monitor activity at hive entrances – with warmer weather, you should notice more bees leaving and returning to the hive throughout the day.
  • Take bottom boards out, check for mites or other insects, and clean before replacing.
  • Keep an eye on the plant life around the hive – if there are few flowers available, consider moving hives to a different spot.

Halfway through spring

  • Keep up regular hive checks to monitor population, queen cell building, brood patterns, and honey stores. Implement swarm management techniques or consider splitting.
  • If you’re concerned about mites or other invasive insects, do a sugar shake or alcohol wash. If you see signs of an infestation, get it sorted with your choice of treatment as soon as possible.
  • If your population seems low or brood is sparse, after ruling out disease issues, consider feeding your bees a pollen supplement and/or sugar syrup to improve health and boost production

Late spring

  • Check hives at least once every two weeks, and take notes to make sure you don’t miss a significant change.
  • When frames in your honey super reach 80-90% full, add another super. This is best done by under-supering. Under-supering encourages the bees to draw out and fill your new honey super faster. You can under super by removing the near full honey box, adding the new empty box on top of your queen excluder, and then putting the near full honey box back at the top. Continue this process throughout the summer and watch your hives grow! Of course, if you want to harvest some honey early then take a super or some frames, processing all supers at the same time though is much more efficient.
  • Add ventilation as the weather heats up – ensure your bottom board has ventilation to ensure the bees to move air through the hive,
  • If you live in an area with high summer temperatures and your hives are in full sun, move them to a shadier spot if you can.
  • If you don’t already have one, place a water source near your hives to keep bees hydrated – a tub or plastic container of water with a couple of large stones are fine.
  • Consider splitting strong hives by rearranging brood frames and using a queen excluder. This gives you a whole new hive for honey production and reduces the risk of a summer swarm.

Get busy with your bees

For bees and their keepers, spring has its ups and downs. Population growth and honey production are positives, but you also have to contend with potential starvation, swarms, and insect invaders. It’s a busy time of year for everyone involved, but when summer comes and honey is ready for harvest, it all seems worth the effort.

Need more information about beekeeping? Get in touch with the experts at Ecrotek.