Hive Management

Running healthy hives through the year.

  1. Inspections and records

    How often to inspect a hive, a frame-by-frame checklist, what to write down, and what to do next when you find a problem.

  2. Feeding, water and forage

    When bees need feeding, what to feed and what never to feed, how to avoid robbing, and how to give bees water and good forage.

  3. Swarm control and splits

    How to spot a colony getting ready to swarm, how to give it room, how to make a simple split, and what to do about a swarm that has left.

  4. Requeening and queen problems

    How to recognise a failing or missing queen, when to replace her, and how to introduce a caged queen and check she has been accepted.

  5. Harvesting and extracting honey

    How to tell when honey is ready, take supers off the hive, extract and store it, and leave enough for the bees.

  6. Seasonal management by climate zone

    A season-by-season task table for Australian hives, with notes for the warm humid north and coast, the temperate south and cooler areas.