🐝 Beekeeping
Hives, colonies, and the beekeeping year
| Hive types | Langstroth · Top Bar · Warré · Flow Hive · Long Langstroth · Other |
|---|---|
| Colony sources | Package · Nucleus (nuc) · Swarm · Split · Purchased colony · Other |
The beekeeping year
- 🐝 First spring inspection · Yearly — First properly warm, still day: laying queen, brood pattern, stores, room to grow.
- 🔎 Swarm check · Weekly — Queen cells and crowding, right through the swarm season. Add a super before they decide for you.
- 🪓 Split a hive · Yearly — A strong colony split is a free colony — and the best swarm control there is.
- 🪲 Mite check & treat · Monthly — Alcohol wash or sugar roll for a real count. Treat on the number, not the calendar.
- 🍯 Harvest honey · Yearly — Pull the surplus supers in late summer — and leave them enough to winter on.
- 🍬 Feed syrup or fondant · Yearly — Syrup while it's warm enough to take it; fondant once it isn't.
- ❄️ Winter-wrap & heft the hives · Yearly — Wrap, mouse guard, upper entrance. Heft the back — weight is the honest stores check.
🌱 Five Acres of Freedom — plan a year's food, map
your land to scale, and keep every homestead record. The numbers on
this page are the same ones the app plans with.
🍏 Download on the App Store
📱 On Android? Join the waitlist