What is happening in the hive?
January – The queen will be surrounded by thousands of worker bees in a cluster within the hive, there is little activity except on the odd warm day
February – The queen is still surrounded by workers in the hive starts laying eggs.
March – On a fine day bees will start to leave the hive, while the queen increases egg laying
April – As the weather warms up and early blossom appears bees will start collecting nectar
May – with good weather nectar and pollen will come thick and fast, the queen will be laying at her fastest rate
June – Honey can be removed from the hive, if high nectar flowers or crops are nearby
July – The main nectar flow will occur during this month
August – Colony strength begins to diminishes, outside activity reduces as nectar becomes less available
September – Hive population continues to reduce and honey crop can be removed
October – Bees are preparing for winter; this is an ideal time to treat them for parasites
November/December – Bees will form a cluster around the queen and will rarely been seen outside the hive
The monitoring equipment, measure temperature, humidity and audio to enable more to be learnt about the bee activity and to enable the prediction of swarming, allowing colonies to expand successfully