While you may have used pollen patties to help your bees get through the fall, spring bees call for plain dry pollen or a pollen substitute outside of the hive. It will give them the best head start to early spring flower blooms and help them increase their population growth quickly. A more nutritious and higher quantity of worker jelly to help larva grow strongĪ different study, from the Mid-Atlantic Apiculture Research and Extension Consortium (MAAREC) notes that, "In colonies with a lack of pollen, brood rearing is delayed until fresh pollen is collected from spring flowers, and these colonies usually emerge from winter with reduced populations." This suggests that pollen is crucial to your bees' diet when feeding bees in spring, or even as early as January.Support while resisting pathogens such as Deformed Wing Virus (DWV).Nutritional reserves to stimulate brood rearing.
Pollen is absolutely essential for spring bees to get the nutrition they need to create a healthy hive.Īccording to a study on how your bees take in protein published in the Journal of Insect Physiology, pollen provides your bees with: While nectar is your bees' primary source for carbohydrates, it is pollen that packs the punch when it comes to your bees' proteins, lipids, sterols, vitamins, minerals and certain carbohydrates. Change to Screened Bottom Board (Optional)įeeding your bees pollen or a pollen substitute like Ultra Bee, MegaBee, or Bee-Pro is an important step to giving your bees the greatest head start into early spring.
COLONY SURVIVAL GALENA HOW TO
Deciding How to Get New Bees (Optional)Īfter Frost Date Inspection (March - July) Table of Contents (Click to Skip Around) Feeding Dry Pollen (January - February)Įarly Spring Inspection ASAP (February - April) To find out more about the challenges ahead, keep reading. This article focuses on the what, when and how to get the greatest start to second year beekeeping. Performing certain Varroa Mite treatments can be ineffective. Feeding them pollen can result in famine. Giving spring bees sugar water can be more harmful than good. When to introduce things to your hive is just a crucial as how you introduce them to your hive. The most apparent of them all is supporting your bees through late winter and early spring.įluctuating temperatures can bring about timing issues. Second year beekeeping can bring on a whole new set of challenges than the ones you faced last year. This can stir up an uneasiness and as soon as the weather breaks into the 50s, I invite you to go check on them. The job roles are starting to vary from "save the queen" back to cleaning, nursing, wax building, foraging and scouting.Īs any worried beekeeper would be, you're probably wondering How are my bees doing right now? and How can I help them? The temperatures are rising and your cluster is slowly breaking apart into the individual lively bees they once were. Spring is near and the fight is almost over.