The Beekeeper’s Calendar: Seasonal Care with Baltic Nectar

Beekeeping: Year-Round Bee Care

Beekeeping is not just about collecting honey; it is a science that requires attention and knowledge of bee care throughout the year. This article will explore the key aspects of maintaining bee colonies, preparing them for winter, migration, and honey extraction.

Number of Frames in a Hive

A healthy bee colony requires ample space for brood rearing, food storage, and essential hive maintenance. On average, a single colony should have 20 to 24 frames with fully built honeycombs to support its growth and survival. In 12-frame hives, all frames are typically dedicated to brood production, meaning that additional frames are necessary for storing honey, pollen, and bee bread. To accommodate this, beekeepers usually add two extra sets of frames, filled with wax foundation or pre-built honeycombs, ensuring the colony has enough storage space.

These extra frames play a crucial role in colony sustainability. Brood frames house developing eggs, larvae, and pupae, while storage frames contain honey, bee bread, and pollen, which are vital food sources. Bee bread, a fermented mixture of pollen and nectar, provides essential proteins and nutrients for growing bees, while stored honey serves as an energy source, especially during nectar shortages. In addition to food storage, bees also produce and use propolis, a sticky resin-like substance collected from tree sap and plant resins. Bees use propolis to seal cracks, reinforce hive structures, and create a sterile environment by inhibiting bacteria, fungi, and viruses. Proper hive management, including ensuring sufficient space for both brood and storage frames, allows bees to thrive, prevents overcrowding, and reduces the risk of swarming.

Wax Frame Restoration in Beekeeping with Baltic Nectar

Wax foundation sheets are thin layers of beeswax with a pre-formed hexagonal cell pattern, commonly used in modern beekeeping. These sheets provide a structured base for bees to build their honeycomb, allowing for faster and more uniform comb construction. While these foundation sheets are made by the beekeepers including the Baltic Nectar team, they closely mimic the natural hexagonal cells that bees instinctively create for storing honey and raising broods.

The hexagonal shape of honeycomb cells is an engineering marvel. This shape is highly efficient because it allows for the most compact storage with minimal wax usage. It also provides strength and stability, ensuring that the honeycomb can support the weight of honey and developing brood. The precise angles of hexagonal cells help distribute weight evenly, making the structure more resilient.

To produce wax foundation sheets, beekeepers first collect and melt beeswax from old honeycombs. The melted wax is then rolled into thin sheets, which are passed through metal rollers engraved with a hexagonal pattern. This process imprints the recognizable honeycomb design onto the sheets. Once the sheets are cut to size, they are placed into wooden or plastic frames and installed in hives.

Although bees can build their honeycombs naturally without foundation sheets, providing them with a structured base speeds up the process. In nature, bees produce their wax from specialised glands on their abdomen and form hexagonal cells instinctively. However, in managed hives, wax foundation sheets help prevent irregular or cross-comb formation, ensuring straight and organized honeycombs. They also strengthen the comb structure, making it more durable, especially during honey harvesting.

Some beekeepers prefer foundationless frames, allowing bees to construct their comb entirely on their own. This method promotes more natural bee behaviour but can result in uneven or delicate combs. Despite this, wax foundation remains a widely used tool in beekeeping, offering efficiency and ease of hive management.

Migration to Increase Honey Collection

Beekeepers including the Baltic Nectar team practice migratory beekeeping to enhance nectar collection and improve crop pollination by relocating hives based on flowering seasons. This involves transporting bee colonies to farms or natural areas where specific crops, such as buckwheat, rapeseed, dandelion, almonds, apples, or sunflowers, are in bloom. By doing so, they provide essential pollination services that increase crop yields while also ensuring a steady nectar supply for honey production.

• Apiary sites should be placed as close as possible to the main nectar source.

• To prevent bees from returning to their previous location, hives should be transported at least 4–5 km away.

• A single site can accommodate between 50 and 70 colonies.

• The distance between different beekeeping sites should be no less than 3 km to prevent bee flight path overlap.

Flight paths of every flight are made by four bees. Each panel represents the lifetime activity of a single bee. The position of the nest is marked by a blue circle. Each flight is shown in a different colour, the earliest flights undertaken by each bee in green, changing smoothly through yellow until the last flights in each bee’s life are shown in red. Grey dashed lines are used to join radar observations made more than 30 s apart, when the bee’s location was uncertain. A-D): flights of Bee 1–4 respectively (For more detailed information, you can access the full publication on the ResearchGate page here).

Bee Transport Considerations

Before transporting bee colonies, beekeepers take several precautions to ensure the safety and well-being of the bees. Hives are securely fastened to prevent movement during transit, as sudden shifts can disturb the colony and cause stress. Inside the hive, frames must remain stable to prevent damage to the delicate honeycomb structures. Honey-filled frames, which are heavier and more fragile, are often removed before transportation to avoid breakage and spillage, which could lead to robbing or attracting pests.

Timing is crucial for successful hive transportation. The best time to move bees is at night or during cool parts of the day when bees are less active and temperatures are lower. This helps prevent overheating, reduces stress, and minimizes the risk of bees flying out during transport. Since bees regulate the temperature inside the hive, extreme heat can be dangerous, making proper ventilation essential. Small openings are left in the hive to allow air circulation, ensuring the colony remains cool and comfortable. Careful planning and handling during transportation are key to maintaining healthy bee colonies and ensuring their successful relocation.

Honey Extraction and Winter Reserves

Honey extraction is a carefully managed process to ensure both sustainable harvesting and colony survival. Beekeepers select frames that are one-third to one-quarter sealed with wax caps, indicating that the honey is mature and ready for extraction. However, it’s crucial to leave behind enough food for the bees, especially for winter survival. Typically, 4–5 honey-filled frames are left in the hive as a reserve, ensuring the colony has sufficient energy during cold months when foraging is impossible.

During winter, a bee colony consumes around 18 kg of honey to maintain warmth and sustain itself. Additionally, bees rely on up to 3 frames of bee bread, a fermented pollen mixture rich in proteins, vitamins, and minerals, to support their immune system and early brood rearing. If nectar sources remain scarce in early spring, beekeepers may need to supplement the colony with up to 5 kg of extra honey to prevent starvation and ensure a strong start to the new season. Well-prepared colonies have higher survival rates and emerge in spring healthier and more productive, ready to resume pollination and honey production.

Interesting fact: Rapeseed honey is not left for bees as winter food. While it is a high-yield honey variety, it crystallizes extremely quickly and becomes too solid for bees to consume during the cold months. If left in the hive, bees struggle to dissolve and consume it, which can lead to starvation and colony loss. Instead, beekeepers replace rapeseed honey with more suitable varieties, such as mixed floral honey, which remain softer and accessible to bees throughout winter. Proper honey management is essential for keeping colonies strong and ensuring their survival through harsh conditions.

August Inspection by Baltic Nectar team

At the end of summer, beekeepers including the Baltic Nectar team conduct a thorough assessment of their colonies to ensure they are strong enough to survive the winter. This includes evaluating the overall colony population, queen health, brood production, and most importantly, honey reserves. Since bees rely on stored honey to sustain themselves through the cold months, beekeepers determine whether the existing supply is sufficient or if additional feeding is required.

Another critical factor is the number of colonies in the apiary. Sometimes, beekeepers may find a shortage due to natural losses from diseases, predators, or unfavourable weather conditions. In such cases, one common practice is to find and introduce wild colonies into the apiary. This can be done by capturing feral swarms or transferring established wild colonies from tree hollows or abandoned structures into managed hives. These new colonies help maintain population levels and genetic diversity within the apiary. However, before introducing wild bees, beekeepers must ensure they are healthy, free from diseases like varroa mites or foulbrood, and capable of integrating into the managed environment. Proper evaluation and reinforcement strategies are essential for maintaining strong and productive colonies year after year.

If you want to find out more about wild bee colonies, read our blog:

Swarm Seekers – Traditional Beekeeping with the Baltic Nectar Team

Preparing for Winter

In late August and early September, beekeepers focus on strengthening their colonies to ensure survival through the winter. This involves increasing the bee population by encouraging brood production, and ensuring the queen is actively laying eggs. Managing pests and diseases is also crucial during this time, particularly treating ticks, and varroa mites, which can weaken the colony. Beekeepers also check for other illnesses like nosema and foulbrood to prevent colony collapse.

In autumn:

• The number of frames in the hive is reduced and insulated.

• Half of the frames should be filled with honey.

• Hives are placed in a sunny location.

• Small colonies are combined into one hive with a divider to retain warmth.

Conclusion

Proper bee care requires continuous monitoring and planning. In spring, bees rebuild the foundation, in summer they actively collect honey, in autumn they prepare for winter, and in winter they consume stored supplies. This approach ensures healthy colonies and a bountiful honey harvest in the next season. Baltic Nectar, Miroslav.