April 2025 Newsletter

I would like to let you know I am retiring from writing the Monthly Management for the MHBA newsletter. I have done it for over 30 years, and it is time to pass the torch. I am passing it to Jenny Warner. Jenny has been with the Bee Lab for over 25 years. Jenny had the first beard of bees at the State Fair. I taught her all I know, and she has learned much more from study and experience. You are in good hands. I will still be active in the MHBA, so you are not free from me yet. 

Gary 

Hello fellow beekeepers! I am happy to be taking over the monthly management segment of the MHBA newsletter so that Gary can continue his retirement journey and deservedly spend more time with Ginger.  As Gary wrote above, I am a long-time, proud employee of the U of MN Bee Lab as well as former President of the MHBA and am truly glad to have a role in MHBA again.  I’ll do my best to fill Gary’s shoes, but we wear different sizes, so if you need more information, please don’t ever hesitate to contact the Bee Squad with questions or photos at [email protected]. 

I’m hoping spring continues on its way and that it’s less rainy than last year to avoid the swarms of 2024! As I write this, it’s in the 50’s and we have added pollen patties and done some bottom board scraping on warmer days.  

For April management, if you haven’t put pollen patties on, please do so and place them as close to the cluster as you can.  Replace them if they get moldy.  Even with pollen stores it’s a good idea to add patties in case there are stretches of cold/rainy weather that keep the bees from foraging. Your queens have been laying eggs for at least several weeks now and the nurse bees need a constant supply of pollen to produce brood food for the developing bees. There’s no need to feed sugar unless the colony is truly starving, and you do not have any honey frames to give to them. 

If it is above freezing it is safe to open the lid and put in a pollen patty. Do not remove frames or do reversals unless it is above 50°F (10°C).  Scrape the bottom board and brush out any dead bees between frames as soon as temperatures allow and switch the entrance reducer, so the hole faces down. Be careful with empty combs as they can be brittle. 

Don’t be in a hurry to take your winter covers off, it’s better to leave them on too long than to take them off too early.  Winter covers are more important in the spring than in the early winter as the colony is raising brood and more sensitive to dropping temperatures if they need to contract their cluster. 

We should be checking our colonies every 7 to 10 days at this point, and once nighttime temperatures stay consistently above freezing and the colony has 4 or more frames of brood you can do a partial reversal or reverse the position of the top two boxes.  Always remember to keep the brood nest together, so if the nest is stranding two boxes, leave them together and move the bottom box to the top, the top box to the middle position, and middle box to the bottom, this is a modified reversal.  

If you are getting packages and need a refresher on the steps check the “Beekeeping in Northern Climates'' (https://beelab.umn.edu/manuals) manual or the sheet "Hiving a package” on Gary’s website (http://z.umn.edu/Garygi),  or the poster 157b (https://beelab.umn.edu/posters) on the Bee Lab website. Feed the package a 1:1 sugar syrup and pollen patty until they have several resource frames filled. If you are installing bees on drawn comb, you can put empty frames in the middle and a few resource frames (if you have them) on either side. You should still feed syrup and pollen even when installing them on drawn comb with resources. 

We really need to be aware of the weather this time of year and watch for when our overwintered colonies will need to be divided. Colonies can be divided when they have 8 or more frames of brood.  Bees don’t pay much attention to the calendar so pay attention to your colony’s growth. Typical divides happen about May 15th so order your queens if you haven’t already.  

If you don’t already have a mite management plan, you should make one. Spring can be a really effective time to get the mite levels down before our brood nests get big and those mite populations get harder to control.

Jenny Warner