Our Method of Beekeeping
Summer
Existing Hive Spring Configuration
This is the hive configuration we will use from late April to late July/mid August. This will change back to one honey super dependent on the weather and the bees in late summer.
This period of time is the busiest for beekeepers with visits to the apiary being at least weekly and depending on what the bees are doing perhaps more often.
April to July is the period when honey bees are most likely to swarm and so the beekeepers must do their best to prevent this natural urge or risk losing 50%+ of a bee colony. Regular visual inspections will often provide the information on the action to be taken. Checking space for the queen to lay, numbers of drones, building of queen cells, honey storage above the brood area are all signs of what the bees may be planning.
For our method of beekeeping this is the time that we harvest full frames of honey. How much we can take all depends on the bees. Frames that have been processed (known as wet frames) will be returned to the bees for them to clean and start refilling.
During this time of the year it is also vital to check bee health. Monitoring for varroa, deformed wing disease (DWD), European Foul Brood (EFB) and many other problems/diseases associated with bees.
Image 1
Dismantle the Hive
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We start by splitting the hive into two sections: brood area and honey.
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We then dismantle the brood area into three separated boxes leaving Brood 1 on the hive base. We also cover the three boxes with weighted white cloths. This helps to protect the bees and the brood areas which in turn helps to keep the bees calm. We appreciate that the cloths could spread a disease such as EFB from one hive to the next but so could a bee suit. We think the benefits out weigh the risks.
Bee Health
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In each brood box we have eleven Hoffman (self spacing) frames. Each frame is methodically removed and inspected.
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As you can see with this image one of the worker bees has frayed wings – an old bee. We can also see larvae in the cells. Healthy larvae is pearly white. The larvae are “c” shaped and sit at the bottom of the cells. They swim in a little pool of brood food and you can see segmentation in their body.
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Plenty of sealed brood is an indication of a thriving colony. The pattern of the sealed brood also indicates the health of the queen and the colony.
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As well as looking for uncapped and capped brood we want to see eggs. You can see one in this image. Eggs are a good sign of the queen’s health and that the colony is “queen right” – or it was three days ago. A good queen can lay between 1500 – 2000 eggs a day at her peak and so in a healthy hive you are very likely to find patches of eggs. As the season draws on the rate of laying will fall or even stop for a while.
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On this inspection we find the queen. This is nice but not entirely necessary if we have found eggs. We do not mark our queens nor clip their wings to prevent them flying off in a swarm. We have found with experience your eye gets drawn to the movement of the queen compared to all of the other bees because of her extended abdomen.
Stores
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In the brood area we will be looking for frames with honey…
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…and pollen.
Reassemble Brood Area
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To reduce the amount of crushed bees when reassembling the brood boxes, a puff of smoke in a couple of corners forces the bees up inside the box…
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…and a couple of puffs to force them down. Now the box going on top can be placed on the one below and many casualties can be avoided.
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Continue with the full inspection of all boxes…
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…until all the frames in the brood area have been inspected and all brood boxes have been restacked. Finally add the queen excluder.
Honey Supers
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Now we can check the honey supers. We start with smoking up Honey 1 and smoking down the bees on the on the queen excluder and place Honey 1 on the hive stack. We can now check all the frames to see if there are any that we can take and harvest.
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As we find frames for harvest we add back wet frames (frames that have been previously harvested) or frames with foundation wax.
We repeat this process for Honey 2 – smoke up Honey 2 smoke down Honey 1 place Honey 2 on Honey 1 and inspect Honey 2 for frames that can be harvested.
Finally the crown board, insulation and lid will be added until we are back to the hive stack as shown in Image 1.
Late Summer
What is late summer to us can be entirely different for the bees. In fact, this year – 2025, because the weather has been so hot and dry the bees are around a month ahead of where they would normally be. Once we pass the summer equinox the bees become aware of the days becoming shorter and Winter survival starts to kick in. Additionally because flowers have bloomed early and there has been very little rain there is a lack of nectar for them to forage. Therefore they have to start to manage the colony size (mouths to feed) and the stores they have accumulated (which we have not harvested). The first sign that they are managing colony size is the number of drone corpses in front of the hive. Most of the drones will be thrown out of the colony as they consume stores and during Autumn and Winter are not needed.
Due to this activity we will reduce the hive stack by consolidating the honey supers into one box.
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As usual we dismantle the hive into its two main sections: brood boxes and honey boxes.
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We then remove the queen excluder. However, we do not split the brood boxes as there is no need for a full inspection. We need to find sealed brood, larvae, eggs and stores. If we can find these in Brood 3 we will go no further because we know that the colony is queen right and we don’t want to cause further disturbance to the colony.
Health Check
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We inspect each frame from Brood 3 looking for sealed brood, larvae, eggs and stores.
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Fluffy bees are young bees. They have an initial vital role of being Nurse bees. Bees under 3 days old clean and polish cells for the queen to lay eggs in and for food storage. Bees aged 3 to 7 days old feed older larvae, secrete royal jelly for feeding the queen, younger worker larvae, and queen larvae of any age, and secrete wax for comb building.
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We are also looking for varroa mites. In the early part of summer these brown/orangey mites are easy to spot on the large white drone larvae. As there is little to no drone larvae at this time of the year we carefully look at the bees to see if they are carrying (known as phoretic) mites on their bodies. Another indicator of varroa infestation is Deformed Wing Disease (DWD) and so we carefully check the wings of the bees.
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We have a good look at the sealed brood pattern. This image shows that the bees are opening sealed cells to expose the pupa. This is a very good trait, inherited via the queen’s DNA (not all bee colonies have this), called Varroa Sensitive Hygiene (VSH). Somehow the bees detect the varroa mites within a cell that has a developing larva. They then open the cell to interrupt the development cycle of the varroa. This greatly reduces the number of mites within the colony.
Honey Frames Consolidation
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The queen excluder is replaced and the Honey 1 box is placed on top. Any frames that are drawn but are empty of honey are placed in a sealed plastic box.
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Any frames that have honey in box Honey 2 are moved to Honey 1. When all eleven slots have been filled the hive can be reconstructed. The bees now have less space to warm and they have a ready source of food. Later in the year (Autumn) we will remove the queen excluder and top up Honey 1 + 2 with frames of honey we purposely did not harvest.
Hive Reconstruction
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Replace the crown board, insulation and lid.
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Finish the stack assembly and strap down.
Varroa Monitoring
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The base of each hive has a mesh floor. A tray, covered with a thin smear of Vaseline to make the mites stick to it, can be slid under the base mesh floor. This is left in place for five days.
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After five days the tray can be pulled out and the mites that have dropped off the bees can be counted. If the count is 10 or greater then we will have to medicate the hive in the Autumn to kill the mites.