03/28/2026
March
The bees will start to find pollen in the month of March, urging them to start the process of returning to normal hive activities. The queen will start laying to almost full capacity as the month goes on and warmer weather allows. Make sure your hives have food, just because they are able to start finding some pollen does not mean there are any nectar sources quite yet, so they need sugar and they probably need it bad. March is a month where many beekeepers are tricked into thinking their hives have survived the winter, just to see them die out due to starvation. You can start feeding them sugar syrup, candy boards or extra honey frames (if you have any).
You may want to start thinking of feeding pollen, as the influx of pollen can embolden the queen to lay more eggs, boosting your hive’s early spring buildup.
Get out there and open your hives, clean the dead-outs and feed the survivors.
April (2026 its still snowing)
The bees have returned to full activity (Maybe) finding nectar and pollen in early spring blooms of maple trees, locust trees, honeysuckle, dandelions and quite a few other trees and bushes. Get into your hives and inspect the brood pattern, consider replacing the queen if she has not returned to laying a solid pattern. Consider inverting your brood boxes, putting the empty lower box above the occupied one, this gives the queen a host of other cells to move UP (she always moves up when searching for more space to lay) to, allowing your colony to increase in population greatly.
Do a mite count for your overwintered hives in April to get a good idea where the mite load is at. Take efforts to control a mite load over 2% at this time of year (2 mites per 100 bees). Walk away splits and formic acid are both great tools at this time of year because it’s the time to start making splits and the temperatures are well within the Mite Away Quick Strips range.
By the later part of April, the nectar really starts to flow. Pull the feeders from the stronger hives and add honey supers. Keep feeding weaker hives if they need a boost, but keep the supers off of the hives that are consuming sugar syrup, this keeps that sugar out of your honey.
Watch out for swarm preparations in April, stronger hives may be getting to that point and the best course of action at this time would be a swarm prevention split.
April is the month most bee packages are delivered. Make sure you feed as much as the package needs while it is getting built up.
