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Spring is approaching!
Your checklist for spring preparations
How did your colony weather the cold?
Get your hive ready for the busiest and most productive season ahead.
Your colonies will start rapidly expanding and conditions will shift quickly, use our spring checklist to make sure you’ve covered every essential.
As the temperature warms and daylight hours lengthen, the queen will increase her egg laying to expand her colony in readiness for the abundance of forage on offer.
As soon as the temperature is warm enough, it’s time to inspect your hive to discover how your bees fared over the colder months.
Haven't yet started with a Flow Hive yet? Here's our guide to getting started.
Your first inspection in spring
Inspecting your hive after a cold winter is one of the most exciting activities for a beekeeper (after honey harvesting of course!) and will help you to discover whether your pre-winter preparations paid off.
Often you’ll find that everything isn’t perfect – don’t worry, things are rarely as you’d expect!
Top Tip: Make sure you choose a nice warm day to make it easier for your bees to maintain their optimal brood temperature.
Two hives are better than one
In spring, your colony will likely reproduce by making preparations to swarm.
You’ll need to make plans on how you will accommodate this new apiary addition, by either adding a new hive to your apiary or gifting to a friend.
Apart from being able to harvest and share more honey, owning two hives ramps up your learning and understanding of the fascinating nature of bees.
Each colony is its own unique microcosm and community, with two you can compare colony strength, productivity, health and support ailing hives with queen cell transfers or brood if needed.
Planning on growing your apiary in spring?
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Now is the time to start considering your colony's needs for the coming season.
If you're planning to expand your apiary with a hive split, we have a sweet saving a Flow Hive – bundled with our latest invention – the Flow Super Lifter – to make your hive inspections easier.
Get ready for your growing colony
If you’re an experienced beekeeper, you’ll know it’s time to assemble your brood frames and get your spare brood boxes built.
With warmer weather, your queen will ramp up her egg-laying which means your colony will expand and will start making preparations to swarm. You don’t want to get caught out by a colony that’s ready to reproduce with nowhere to house them!
Top Tip: Many experienced beekeeper’s keep a swarm capture kit on hand (sometimes even in their car!) throughout beekeeping season, consisting of a brood box, brood frames, base, roof and a suit.
Swarm prevention
Swarming is the natural way bees reproduce and multiply, however, it’s considered good beekeeping practice to take steps to avoid. Feral colonies can pose a risk to the public, your bees, other beekeepers, and honey bee biosecurity in your country.
If your bees swarm, your colony will be reduced as will their nectar resources and your hive may be left vulnerable to pests and diseases.
Top Tip: Swarm mitigation is about understanding bee behaviour and attempting to meet their needs before they act.
A little extra space for your bees
An ideal super is one of the most popular ways to collect and sell honeycomb, thanks to its conveniently sized frames that the bees can fill out quickly.
The extra room to store incoming nectar can also form part of your swarm mitigation strategy as your colony expands.
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How to split a hive
Splitting your hive is the most successful way to mitigate swarms and is considered a responsible beekeeping practice.
You can split a large, healthy hive to create a new colony by taking a portion of an established colony and transferring it to a separate hive.
Each hive will have sufficient worker bee populations, stores and either their own queen or possibility of creating one from existing fertilised eggs.
Bonus: Learn about vertical splits.
Monitoring your splits
It’s a good idea to monitor your splits closely in the days following their creation. Make sure each has enough adult bees to care for the brood you have given them and take action if they do not.
Thrill of the swarm catch
When a colony has made the decision to swarm, sometimes it’s unavoidable.
Luckily, catching a swarm of bees is one of the most joyous parts of beekeeping and it is an easy and free way to bolster your apiary!
At this stage, they seldom have comb and are just a cluster of bees. Without the complication of comb, a beekeeper can easily scoop, shake or lower the swarm into their equipment and bring them back to their apiary.
Apiary maintenance
As things start to ramp up in the apiary, it’s a great time to check your equipment – there’s nothing worse than discovering a hole in your bee suit hood when you’re up close and personal with an open hive!
Inspect your safety equipment and make sure you have everything you’ll need coming into the new season.
Re-oil cedar hives or check to see if your Araucaria or ThermoGrade paint jobs need a new coat.
Top Tip: When re-treating timber components, use no VOC non-toxic treatments – these can be reapplied while the bees are in the hive. Make sure you wear protective clothing.
Need extra help?
There’s always more to learn to grow and deepen your knowledge in beekeeping.
So in conjunction with the world's experts we've created TheBeekeeper.org. It lets you fast-track your learning easily and enjoyably. Learn in your own time with high-quality videos explaining what you need to know in order to feel confident looking after your bees.
We're here to support you in your beekeeping journey!
Our customer service team will get back to you with an answer to your beekeeping question.
Share with a friend
Help a newbee set up a hive or split your colony with a friend! It’s a great way to speed up your beekeeping knowledge.
Our Refer-A-Friend program allows your friend to receive $50 off their first hive, and you receive a sweet $50 reward (no further discounts apply).
If you don’t have a beekeeping buddy, consider linking up with someone local on the Flow Community Forum or a Flow Hive Facebook group.