Your Spring Beekeeping Checklist: What to Do When the Bees Start Flying

I always say spring is where beekeeping seasons are won or lost. What you do (or don't do) in these next few months sets the trajectory for the whole year. Rush things and you stress the colony. Wait too long and you're chasing swarms across the neighborhood.

After nine seasons managing hives in northern Georgia, I've settled into a rhythm that works. It's not the only way - ask ten beekeepers and you'll get twelve opinions - but it's served me well. I'm breaking this into three phases: early spring, mid-spring, and late spring.

Early Spring: The First Real Look Inside

When: Daytime temperatures are consistently hitting 50–55°F. For me in zone 7b, that's usually late February to mid-March. Don't open hives when it's cold - you'll chill the brood and do more harm than good.

Your first inspection of the year

This is the big one. You've been peeking through the observation window (if you have one) or hefting the back of the hive all winter, but now it's time to actually get in there. Here's what you're looking for:

1. Is the queen alive and laying?

You don't necessarily need to spot her. Look for eggs - tiny white grains of rice standing up in the bottom of cells. If you see eggs, your queen was alive within the last three days. If you see a good pattern of capped brood (solid, not scattered or "shotgun"), even better.

No eggs, no brood, and a dwindling population? You probably lost your queen over winter. Don't panic, but you need to act. Order a mated queen from a reputable supplier or combine the queenless colony with a strong one using the newspaper method.

2. How are the food stores?

This is critical. Late winter and early spring are when colonies starve. They've been eating through their honey all winter, and there's not much forage available yet. Lift the frames at the edges - are there capped honey stores? If the hive feels light and you don't see much honey, start feeding immediately.

I use a 1:1 sugar syrup ratio (by weight) in early spring - our sugar syrup calculator takes the guesswork out of mixing the right batch size. It simulates nectar flow and stimulates the queen to ramp up egg laying. A simple baggie feeder or a top feeder works fine. I've gone back and forth on feeding - some purists don't do it at all - but I've also scraped out starved colonies in March and I'd rather have fed them.

3. Check for obvious disease signs

A quick scan while you've got the frames out:

• Sunken, greasy-looking cappings with holes punched in them → possible American Foulbrood (AFB). Do a rope test: poke a toothpick into a suspect cell, pull it out slowly. If the contents stretch into a ropy, brown string, that's AFB. Contact your state apiary inspector immediately. This is serious.
• Chalky white or grey mummies in cells or on the bottom board → Chalkbrood. Usually not fatal but indicates stress. Ensure good ventilation.
• Bees with deformed wings crawling on frames → Deformed Wing Virus, almost always associated with high varroa loads. You'll need to address mites aggressively.

4. Clean the bottom board

Scrape off dead bees, wax cappings, and debris that accumulated over winter. A clean bottom board improves ventilation and gives you a better baseline for monitoring mite drop later.

Other early spring tasks

• Remove winter insulation or moisture boards if you used them. The colony needs airflow now, not extra warmth.
• Check entrance reducers. I usually keep a medium reducer on until the colony builds up in population. It helps them defend against robbing.
• Assess overall colony strength. How many frames of bees? A healthy colony coming out of winter should cover at least 5–6 frames in a single deep. Fewer than that and the colony is weak - consider combining with another.

Mid-Spring: Building Momentum

When: Temperatures regularly in the 60s, early nectar sources blooming (dandelions, fruit trees, clover starting). In my area, this is roughly mid-March through mid-April.

Varroa mite monitoring - do not skip this

I can't stress this enough. If you do one thing from this entire article, let it be this: test your mite levels in mid-spring. (For a deeper dive, see my take on what actually works for varroa treatment.)

My preferred method is the alcohol wash. Scoop about 300 bees (roughly half a cup) from a brood frame into a jar with rubbing alcohol. Shake for a minute, strain through a mesh screen, count the mites. Divide mites by 3 to get your percentage.

Threshold: If you're above 2–3 mites per 100 bees in spring, treat. I know some beekeepers who practice "treatment-free" management. I respect their choice but I've seen too many colonies crash from varroa-transmitted viruses to feel comfortable rolling those dice myself. I typically use oxalic acid vaporization in early spring (before supers go on) and switch to Apivar strips if levels are stubborn.

Adding supers

When your bees are covering 7–8 frames in the top brood box and you see white wax being drawn on the frames, it's time to add space. This serves two purposes: it gives them room to store incoming nectar, and it relieves congestion that triggers swarming.

I generally add a honey super with a queen excluder underneath. Some beekeepers skip the excluder. I've had queens lay in my honey supers exactly once, and dealing with brood in your harvest frames is annoying enough that I'll take the slight inconvenience of an excluder every time.

Protein and nutrition

If natural pollen isn't abundant yet, consider a pollen substitute patty on top of the frames. The queen is ramping up laying, and nurse bees need protein to feed larvae. I use commercial pollen patties - a single patty split between two hives. Don't overdo it; once natural pollen is coming in strong, remove any uneaten patty so it doesn't attract hive beetles.

Keep records

I carry a small notebook to the bee yard. For each hive I note: date, number of frames of bees, brood pattern (good/fair/poor), queen seen or evidence of queen, food stores (light/medium/heavy), any concerns. It takes an extra two minutes per hive and saves me from trying to remember which hive had the iffy brood pattern two weeks later.

Late Spring: Swarm Season

When: Colony populations are booming, nectar flow is strong. Mid-April through May for me. This is simultaneously the most exciting and the most stressful part of the beekeeping year.

Swarm prevention - be proactive

A colony that swarms loses roughly half its workforce. Your honey crop plummets, and now you've got bees living in your neighbor's soffit. Not ideal.

Watch for these warning signs during inspections:

• Queen cups with eggs or larvae (swarm cells), especially along the bottom edges of frames
• Backbearding - large numbers of bees clustering outside the hive entrance
• Overcrowding - every frame packed with bees, little open space

If you see charged queen cells (with larvae or royal jelly in them), you're likely 7–10 days from a swarm. You have options:

Option 1: Make a split. Pull 2–3 frames of brood (with one of those queen cells) and bees into a new nuc box. Move it to a different location in your yard, at least a few feet away. The original hive keeps the old queen and loses the urge to swarm. The new split raises the virgin queen from the swarm cell. This is my go-to approach - you end up with a new colony for free.

Option 2: Destroy the queen cells and add space. This is a temporary fix. It might buy you a week, but if conditions haven't changed (crowding, backlog of nectar), they'll just build new cells. I've played this game and lost.

Option 3: Checkerboarding. In the honey supers, alternate full frames with empty frames or foundation. This gives bees a sense of open space above the brood nest and can reduce swarming impulse. It works better as prevention than as a cure - do it before you see queen cells.

Queen assessment

Late spring is a good time to evaluate your queens honestly. Is the brood pattern solid and consistent? Is the colony building up well compared to your other hives? A mediocre queen now means a weak colony going into summer. I re-queen colonies that aren't performing - it feels harsh, but a $30 queen is cheaper than nursing a struggling colony through the rest of the season.

Pest monitoring continues

Keep checking for varroa every 4–6 weeks. Also watch for:

• Small hive beetles: Look for small, dark beetles running across the tops of frames. They thrive in warm, humid conditions. Keep colonies strong and maintain good ventilation. Traps can help but strong bee populations are the best defense.
• Wax moths: More of a problem in weak colonies or stored equipment than in strong hives. If you see webbing or tunneling in the wax, clean it up and figure out why the colony couldn't defend itself.

A Few Things I've Learned the Hard Way

Don't inspect on cold, windy, or rainy days. Bees are cranky in bad weather and so am I. Pick a calm, warm afternoon when the foragers are out. The bees left at home are younger house bees - generally gentler.

Always bring your smoker, even if you think it'll be a quick peek. The one time you don't is the time you need it.

If you're questioning whether something looks wrong in the hive, take a photo and ask someone. Your local bee club, online forums, even your state extension service. I've sent more blurry cell phone photos to my mentor than I can count, and not once has she made me feel dumb for asking.

Spring moves fast. A week of procrastination can mean a swarm, a starved colony, or a mite bomb. Set a recurring reminder on your phone for weekly inspections and treat it like an appointment you can't cancel.

Good luck this season. The bees are counting on you - even if they have a funny way of showing it.