Beginner Beekeeping FAQ

It varies enormously, and not just by state. Counties and individual cities set their own rules on top of the state, so two addresses ten minutes apart can have completely different answers. Some places require registration, often free or a few dollars. Some set setback distances from property lines, a water source requirement, or hive number limits by lot size. Some prohibit bees outright. And plenty have nothing at all. Check your state department of agriculture for registration, then check your city and county code for the local rules, because the local layer is the one people miss. Confirm it before you buy bees rather than after.

California beekeepers: we checked all 58 counties and 512 cities, county by county →

I can't look up your specific local zoning laws. Those vary widely by city, county, and state, but I can tell you where to check. Start by contacting your city or county zoning office directly (usually online or by phone) and ask specifically about beekeeping regulations, setback distances from property lines, and hive limits. Many areas also have local beekeeping clubs or associations that keep updated guides on their websites. Your state's department of agriculture often publishes beekeeping regulations too, which is a good second source. Since rules change and sometimes conflict between different jurisdictions, it's worth getting written confirmation before you set up your hives.

It depends on where you live. Many US cities and counties allow backyard beekeeping, but some have restrictions on hive placement, setback distances from property lines, or limits on hive numbers. A few places ban it entirely. Check your local zoning ordinances and homeowners association rules first, your city or county planning department can tell you in minutes. Even where it's legal, talking to neighbors beforehand is smart. Most people are curious rather than concerned, and a friendly heads-up prevents problems. If anyone worries about stings, you can explain that honeybees are generally docile and rarely sting unless defending the hive.

Most beginners do best starting with two hives instead of one. A single hive can fail due to disease, poor queens, or bad luck, leaving you with nothing to show for your effort and expense. With two hives, you can compare their progress, use a strong hive to help a struggling one, and still have bees even if one colony doesn't make it through the year. That said, two hives do require more time and equipment cost than one. If you're very limited on space, budget, or time, starting with one hive is workable, just know you're taking on more risk. Many beekeepers scale up to four or more hives in their second or third year once they understand the rhythm of the work.

Start with The Beekeeper's Handbook by Sammaniego, Flottum, and Covey. It's practical, thorough, and written for hobbyists without overwhelming you. Top-Bar Beekeeping by Les Crowder is excellent if you're planning to use a top-bar hive instead of standard boxes, and Natural Beekeeping by Ross Conrad covers treatment-free approaches if that interests you. One book alone won't cover everything, so plan to read two or three and let your specific setup and goals guide you. Many beekeepers also join their local beekeeping club early on, since experienced folks can answer questions much faster than books and help you troubleshoot your own hives. It's a useful companion to what you've read.

Yes, a beginner class is worth your time and money. You'll learn safety basics, hive anatomy, and seasonal management directly from experienced beekeepers who can answer your specific questions, things no article can fully cover. Most classes also connect you with local beekeepers, which is invaluable for finding mentors and getting advice tailored to your region's climate and beekeeping style. If cost is a concern, check whether your local beekeeping association offers free or low-cost sessions, or pair a class with free resources like extension office guides.

Expect 1–3 hours per week during active season (spring through fall), mostly for inspections and basic hive maintenance. Winter requires minimal time, maybe 30 minutes a month to check on stores and ensure ventilation. The exact time depends on how many hives you keep and how detailed you want to be. Starting out, you might spend a bit more as you learn, but it becomes quicker with practice.

Budget $545 to $875 for your first hive. That covers a full Langstroth setup with supers ($200–$350), a nuc or package of bees ($150–$200), a 3-layer ventilated suit ($80–$150), leather gloves ($15–$30), a quality stainless steel smoker ($30–$50), a tool kit ($25–$40), a frame feeder ($8–$15), and a first varroa treatment (around $37, depending on the product). Used equipment can cut that significantly, but buy it from someone you can ask about its history rather than off a marketplace listing. American foulbrood spores survive for decades in old woodenware and you cannot tell by looking, which is why secondhand boxes of unknown origin are the one place to be fussy. Experienced beekeepers strongly recommend starting with two hives: it roughly doubles the upfront cost but gives you a backup colony and a comparison point that prevents a lot of first-year losses.

Start with a Langstroth. It's the most beginner-friendly and has the biggest support network. You'll find equipment everywhere, plenty of local beekeepers using them, and tons of resources online. Top Bar and Warre hives are gentler on bees and require less heavy lifting, but they're harder to find parts for and have fewer mentors in most areas. If you hate lifting heavy boxes or want a more hands-off approach, a Top Bar could work. But honestly, your first choice should be whatever type your local beekeeping club uses most. That way you can learn from experienced keepers nearby and borrow tools when you need them. Once you have a year or two under your belt, you'll know your own preferences well enough to try something different.

Absolutely. A local club connects you with experienced beekeepers who know your climate, can recommend suppliers, and help you troubleshoot problems before they become expensive disasters. They often host hive inspections, seasonal workshops, and sell packages or nucs at fair prices. The social side matters too. Beekeeping can feel isolating when things go wrong, and having people who understand what you're dealing with makes a huge difference. Most clubs are welcoming to beginners and cost very little to join.

Never having reacted before does not rule out reacting later, and that is not a call we are in any position to make for you. If you have any doubt at all, the conversation belongs with your doctor. However, if you've experienced swelling beyond the sting site, difficulty breathing, or severe reactions to insect stings in the past, talk to your doctor about an allergy test or epinephrine auto-injector before keeping bees. Most beekeepers with mild or no sting allergies do fine with proper protective gear and careful hive work. That said, beekeeping does mean occasional stings are inevitable. It's part of the hobby. If you're uncertain about your tolerance, asking your doctor is the safest first step.

Order bees in late fall or early winter, typically by December or January, so you have time to secure a reliable supplier before spring demand peaks. Most beekeepers receive their package bees or nucleus colonies between March and May, depending on your location and the breeder's schedule. If you're a complete beginner, ordering early also gives you time to set up your equipment, read up on hive management, and prepare your apiary site before the bees arrive. Check with local beekeeping clubs for reputable suppliers in your region, since some quality breeders fill up quickly.

You can keep bees in surprisingly little space. A single hive needs only about 4 feet by 4 feet of dedicated ground area. Many beekeepers operate successfully on small residential lots, patios, or even rooftops in urban areas. Beyond the hive footprint itself, consider leaving some clearance around it so you can comfortably work during inspections and have room to set down equipment. It also helps to position your hive where it won't be in a main foot-traffic zone and where bees flying in and out won't disturb neighbors. If you're planning to expand to multiple hives down the road, space them at least a few feet apart to reduce disease spread between colonies. Check your local zoning laws first. Some areas have minimum lot sizes or setback requirements for beekeeping, and a few even prohibit it entirely.

Package bees are loose workers, a queen, and some drones shipped in a screened box, essentially a temporary container for transport. A nuc (nucleus colony) is a small but established hive with frames of brood, honey, and pollen already built out, plus a mated queen who's already laying. In short: packages are a blank slate you're building from scratch, while nucs are a head start. Nucs typically establish faster and are more forgiving for beginners since they skip the early weeks of comb building. Packages are cheaper and more available, but they can take longer to get going and require more patience through those early stages.

A nuc (nucleus colony) is generally better for beginners because it arrives already organized with a laying queen, brood, and established bees, so you're starting with a functioning mini-colony. Packages require you to install the queen and let bees build comb from scratch, which takes longer and demands more hands-on management early on. That said, nucs cost more and can be harder to source depending on your location. If you go with a package, just expect a slower start and be patient during those first few weeks.

Install package bees by first preparing your hive with drawn comb or foundation, then gently pouring the bees from the package cage into the hive box rather than shaking them out, which can injure them. Remove the queen cage first and check that the queen is alive; then leave her caged with the candy plug in and let the colony release her, which takes about five days. Feed the new colony with sugar syrup (1:1 ratio) for at least two weeks to help them build comb and survive until flowers bloom. Check the cage around day five to make sure the queen has been released and the bees are settling in. Have your smoker ready but use it sparingly, since new packages are generally docile, and keep visitors away for the first few days to minimize stress.

Installing a nuc (nucleus colony) into a full-size hive is straightforward: open your prepared hive box, gently remove the frames from the nuc box in the same order, and place them directly into your hive. Make sure the frames fit snugly and that you maintain the same spacing. If the nuc frames are slightly narrower, use frame spacers to keep them centered. Close up the hive, leave the bees undisturbed for at least a week, then do a quick inspection to make sure the queen is laying and the colony is settling in.

m. and dusk. This gives them the whole night to settle down and orient to their new home before they start exploring during daylight hours, which reduces the chance they'll get confused and fly away. Make sure the temperature is at least 55°F, and avoid installing during heavy rain or strong winds.

A swarm is a group of bees, usually 10,000 to 40,000, that leave their hive together when they want to split and start a new colony, often in spring or early summer. You should catch one if you can, because it's free bees and they're docile during the swarm (they've gorged on honey before leaving and aren't defending a home). You'll need a box or container, a way to get them down safely, and a spot to hive them. The tricky part is that swarms can land almost anywhere: a tree branch, a fence, even a parked car, and timing matters; once they move on, they're gone. If you spot one nearby, call a local beekeeper or beekeeping group first; they often come help and can advise you on safe removal. After you hive a swarm, it's smart to track their progress with regular inspections so you can monitor their food stores and health through the season.

The key is to stay calm. Swarming bees are docile because they're gorged with honey and have no home to defend. If the swarm is clustered on a branch, position a box or basket directly beneath it, give the branch a sharp shake to drop the bees in, then gently slide a cover on. If they're in a harder-to-reach spot, use a bee brush, or a purpose-built bee vacuum with a soft landing chamber and adjustable suction, since a plain shop vacuum kills a large share of the bees it picks up. Once captured, place them in a dark, ventilated box for a few hours to settle, then transfer them into a prepared hive at dusk when all foragers are home. The sooner you hive them the better, because swarms left sitting too long may take off again. Wear your gear for safety, but remember these bees rarely sting during capture since they have no brood or resources to protect.

Feed newly installed package bees or nucleus colonies for at least 2–3 weeks, or until they've drawn out comb and stored enough resources to sustain themselves. If you install them in spring when nectar flow is light, they'll need supplemental feeding longer, potentially through the first month. Stop feeding once they have sealed honey stores and are no longer taking syrup, which usually means they've found natural forage. A good rule: check your hive during inspections to see how much syrup they're actually consuming. If they're not touching it for several days and have built comb and brood, it's safe to remove the feeder.

It depends mainly on how late in the season you installed them and how much food they can store. Package bees or nucs installed in spring or early summer have a decent shot if you manage them well. They need time to build up their population and fill combs with honey and pollen. Fall installations are much riskier because the colony won't have enough time to grow large enough or store sufficient reserves before cold weather arrives. Your best moves are to keep detailed notes on their progress, watching brood patterns and food stores at each inspection, ensure they have at least 60–80 pounds of honey or equivalent syrup by late fall, and monitor for mites and disease. Even strong colonies can struggle with varroa mites or nosema, so don't skip those checks. Many first-year colonies don't make it, but good record-keeping and feeding significantly improve your odds.

Inspect your hive every 7 to 14 days during the active season (spring through fall), and less often, or not at all, during winter when bees cluster and should not be disturbed. ColonyTrack's overdue reminder defaults to 12 days and you can change it in settings. During peak season, regular inspections let you catch problems like disease, swarming, or a failing queen before they become serious. Keep a simple record of what you find so you can spot trends, whether the colony is building comb, raising brood, and storing resources.

How ColonyTrack schedules and logs inspections →

Look for a healthy brood pattern (mostly capped cells in a solid cluster, with minimal gaps), plenty of food stores, and a laying queen or fresh eggs. You'll also want to check for signs of disease like unusual discoloration, foul smells, or spotty brood, and if the hive is due a mite count, take an alcohol wash while you are in there. Count your frames of bees and note the colony's temperament and any obvious problems like queen cells or dwindling numbers. You'll get a clearer picture of your colony's health as the season progresses. Aim to inspect every 7–10 days during the active season so you catch swarm preparations or problems before they spiral.

Look for a bee that's noticeably longer than the workers, with a sleeker abdomen and longer legs. She'll stand out once you know what to look for. Start by examining the brood frames (the ones with eggs and larvae), since the queen is usually near where she's been laying. On a calm day with good light, work slowly through your frames and let your eyes adjust; resist the urge to rush, as the queen often moves away from direct sunlight. If you can't spot her after checking a few frames, don't worry. Eggs and young larvae tell you she was there within the last few days, even if she's hiding.

A healthy brood pattern is solid and compact, with eggs, larvae, and pupae filling most cells in an organized way. You're looking for a frame where the brood forms a tight cluster with few empty cells scattered throughout. Think of a full checkerboard rather than a spotty one. The brood sits in rough concentric bands: capped pupae in the middle where she started, larvae ringing them, and the newest eggs out at the edge of the patch, with pollen and then honey arching over the top. Some gaps are normal, since bees clear out cells that did not take and a queen skips cells. Patterns also vary a lot between colonies and across a season, so a frame with holes in it is worth photographing and comparing against this hive's last few inspections rather than reading on its own.

A spotty brood pattern is a frame where capped and uncapped brood sit mixed in with empty cells instead of forming a solid sheet. Several very different things leave that same picture: varroa and the brood damage that travels with it, a queen who is failing or who has only recently started laying, poor nutrition, chilled brood, and workers cleaning out cells that did not take. A single frame will not tell you which one you are looking at. The check that turns a guess into a number is a mite wash, so start there. Then look again in a week or two and see whether the pattern holds, improves, or spreads. If the colony otherwise looks well and the pattern is mild, a recently mated queen may just need more time. If it spreads, or if you find sunken or perforated cappings with discolored larvae underneath, stop and get it looked at rather than acting on your own read. Both foulbroods are reportable, and confirming one is not a job for a photo in a comment thread. Logging your inspections in ColonyTrack gives you the earlier frames to compare against, which is what tells you whether it is improving or spreading.

Where beekeeping advice is worth trusting, and where it is not →

Compare a frame against your earlier inspections →

Look for a solid pattern of capped brood (sealed pupae) with few empty cells, a queen that's laying consistently, and frames of pollen and honey stored around the brood nest. Healthy bees are generally calm during inspections, show no obvious signs of disease, and the population should be climbing. A colony sitting on two or three frames of bees coming out of winter should be covering most of a brood box by early summer. One still on three frames in midsummer has stalled and is worth a closer look. You'll also notice they're actively foraging and building comb when given resources. Log your observations during hive inspections, noting brood patterns, bee population, and any concerns, so you can spot changes over time and catch problems early. If something looks off to you, photograph it, log it, and look again on your next inspection. A second look a week later tells you far more than a snap judgement does.

Yes, absolutely. Recording what you see during inspections, brood patterns, food stores, pest levels, and queen presence, helps you spot problems early and learn what's normal for your colonies. It's the difference between guessing and having actual data to guide your decisions. At minimum, jot down the date, weather, and one or two key observations. If you want to go deeper, track things like mite counts or how quickly your bees are building comb. Even brief notes become invaluable when you're comparing how a hive performed across seasons.

You should inspect your hive when it's at least 50–55°F outside, ideally warmer. Bees cluster tightly in cold weather to protect the brood, so they can't quickly move away from the frames you're examining, and you risk chilling the brood or breaking apart the cluster. On a warm, calm day with good light, you'll also see more activity and get a clearer picture of what's happening in the hive. You might spot the queen, assess food stores accurately, and notice any issues more easily.

A typical inspection takes 15–30 minutes per hive, depending on how thorough you want to be and how calm your bees are. Beginners often take longer since you're still learning what to look for, and that's completely fine, rushing leads to mistakes or missed problems. A basic check (brood pattern, food stores, disease signs) is faster than a detailed count of frames or pest monitoring, so adjust your timeline based on what you need that day.

A loud roar is worth writing down along with the date, the weather, and what the entrance looked like. Colonies roar for a range of reasons, including heat, crowding, queenlessness and a recent disturbance, and the sound on its own does not tell you which one you have. Check your hive immediately for signs of a queen, plenty of food and water, and adequate ventilation. If it's hot, make sure the entrance isn't blocked and consider adding an upper entrance or shade. If the roaring continues for more than a day or two, or if you see lots of bees clustering outside, your colony may be ready to swarm, so you might need to add space (a new box) quickly to keep them from leaving.

The queen's main job is laying eggs, thousands of them, to keep the colony growing and replacing bees as they age and die. She's the only bee in the hive that can lay fertilized eggs that become workers, while unfertilized eggs become drones (male bees). The queen also produces special chemicals called pheromones that tell the rest of the colony "there's a healthy queen here," which keeps everyone organized and prevents workers from laying eggs themselves. Beyond reproduction, the queen doesn't really "do" much else. She doesn't forage, build comb, or take care of larvae. Worker bees feed, groom, and protect her because her eggs are essential to the colony's survival. If the laying or the colony's behaviour has changed from what you logged last time, that is the cue to look more closely and write down what you see, rather than to reach for a decision on the spot.

A healthy queen bee typically lives 2 to 5 years, though 3 years is most common in a well-managed hive. This is dramatically longer than a summer worker's five or six weeks, and a good queen will lay a few hundred thousand eggs across her life. As she ages, her egg-laying rate gradually declines, which is why many beekeepers replace their queens every 1–2 years to maintain strong colony productivity.

You should have exactly one laying queen per hive. Put two together and they will usually fight until one remains, and you can lose both. The exception is the short transition while you are requeening, and the order matters more than anything else about it. Take the old queen out first. A colony that still has its own laying queen will not accept a new one and will normally kill her, cage or no cage. Give the colony at least 48 hours queenless so it registers the loss, then hang the new queen's cage between the frames. For that stretch there is a queen in a cage and none loose on the comb, which is what you want. Logging the swap in ColonyTrack tells you how long the current queen has been in and gives you her laying record to look at when you are deciding whether she needs replacing.

How long the current queen has been in, and her laying record →

A failing queen typically lays fewer eggs, creates spotty brood patterns with gaps in the comb, or lays eggs that don't hatch. You might also notice the colony dwindling in population, or more than one egg in a cell, which a newly mated queen does too for a few days before she settles down. Sometimes you'll see the queen herself looking scrawny, discolored, or moving sluggishly on the comb. If you suspect queen failure, consider replacing her before the colony becomes too weak to recover.

Laying workers are female worker bees that start laying eggs when a hive has lost its queen and has no young larvae to raise a replacement. Unlike a queen, workers produce only unfertilized eggs, which develop into drones (males), so the hive can't sustain itself and will eventually die out. Once workers are laying, a bought queen dropped straight in is usually killed, so that is the expensive way to find out. What tends to work is combining the colony into a strong queenright hive, or giving it a frame of open brood from another colony every week until it will accept a queen. The sooner you act, the better, since laying workers are hard to reverse once they're established. You can also try combining the affected hive with a strong, queen-right colony, which often suppresses laying workers naturally. The best prevention is catching a queenless hive within a week or two of losing the queen, before workers start laying.

None of the signs of queenlessness settle it on their own. No eggs or young larvae, a restless colony, and a population that keeps shrinking are all worth recording, and it is the same picture holding across successive inspections that builds the case. You may also notice workers laying eggs scattered randomly across cells instead of in the organized pattern a queen creates, since laying workers emerge when there's no queen to suppress their reproductive instinct. Look for eggs and young larvae at your next inspection. Two weeks with none is your cue to look harder, not a verdict: a colony raising its own queen can go four or five weeks without eggs while she emerges, mates and starts laying. That is why ColonyTrack does not call a hive queenless off missing eggs alone. If you catch it early, you can combine the hive with another colony, introduce a new queen, or give the hive a frame of eggs from a queenright colony so they can raise their own.

How ColonyTrack decides a hive is queenless →

A queenless hive needs a queen within a few weeks or it will collapse, so quick action matters. Your best options are to buy a new queen and introduce her (usually by caging her for a few days so the bees accept her scent), or combine the queenless hive with a strong colony that has a queen. If you catch it early and the hive still has young larvae (under 3 days old), you can let the bees raise their own queen from that brood, though it takes longer: roughly four weeks before she is laying, and up to about five before you call it. In the meantime, keep feeding the hive if there's no brood to sustain the bees, and limit the entrance so robber bees don't attack the weakened colony.

Queen cells are special, larger cells that bees build to raise new queens. They're peanut-shaped and hang vertically, usually on the edge or bottom of the comb. Finding them isn't automatically bad. It depends on the context. Count them, note where on the frame they sit and whether each is an empty cup, has an egg or larva in it, or has been capped, and log it. The same cells can mean very different things and one look will not settle it. However, multiple queen cells often signal that your bees are preparing to swarm (leave the hive with the old queen) or that they've lost their queen and are trying to raise a replacement. Either way, it's worth keeping an eye on them during your next check-in.

It depends on what you're trying to achieve. If you want to prevent swarming, removing queen cells before they're capped is your best bet, do this during spring inspections when bees are building them. However, if you're okay with swarming or you want to let a colony produce a new queen naturally (like after the old one fails), you can leave them alone. Check your colonies every 7–10 days during the active season to catch queen cells early, since they develop fast once capped. The key is being consistent, one missed inspection can mean a swarm is already gone.

Yes, and most beekeepers do. The usual method is a mated queen in a cage with a candy plug: you hang the cage between frames and the bees eat through the candy over a few days, which gives them time to accept her. The order is the part that goes wrong. Find and remove the old queen first, and leave the colony queenless for at least 48 hours before the cage goes in. A colony that still has a laying queen will kill a new one. A marked queen is much easier to find in a full hive, which is worth the small extra cost the first few times you do this. On timing: pick a colony strong enough to support her, and ideally a stretch when nectar is coming in or you are feeding, because acceptance runs higher then. A dearth is the harder time, since that is when colonies are touchiest and robbing starts easily. Then leave them alone. Opening the hive to check on her is the most common way people lose a queen they just paid for. Give it a week, then look for eggs. If you are tracking the hive in ColonyTrack you will have the date she went in and how the colony did afterwards, which is what tells you whether requeening was worth it.

Queen changes, dated and tracked →

A queen can slow or stop for many reasons, including her age, a mating that did not take, a dearth, a cold snap, or the colony's mite load. The hive will not tell you which one from a single look. Less often, she's simply worn out from overproduction. Start by checking if your colony has enough food, a hungry hive often triggers the queen to pause laying. Record what the brood looks like and compare it against this hive's previous inspections, and take a mite wash while you are in there. The pattern on its own does not tell you why she stopped. If the pattern was solid before, aging is more likely. You might also check for signs of illness like discolored pupae or dead brood. A new queen or requeening is usually the fix, though if she's young and the hive is healthy otherwise, sometimes a break in laying is temporary.

A drone-laying queen is a queen bee that has lost the ability to lay fertilized (female) eggs and only produces unfertilized eggs, which develop into male drones. This usually happens when a queen runs out of stored sperm from her mating flights, often after 1–2 years of heavy laying, or if she was never properly mated to begin with. Log what you saw and when, and check the same frames again on your next inspection. Where the colony goes from here depends on things a single look does not show you. The clearest way to spot this is during an inspection: drone brood, with its raised bullet-shaped cappings, filling worker-sized cells in the tidy contiguous pattern a queen lays. Drone brood that is scattered about instead, with several eggs in a cell or eggs stuck to the cell walls, points at laying workers, which is a different situation with a different fix. Your best option is to replace her with a new queen or combine the colony with a stronger hive.

Varroa destructor is an external parasite of honey bees. It is about 1.7mm across, reddish brown and flat, and you can see one on a bee without magnification. It feeds on the fat body, the organ that handles a bee's immune response, detoxification, and the reserves that let a bee overwinter. Older sources say varroa feeds on blood (hemolymph). That was corrected in 2019 and the fat body is the current finding. What makes varroa worse than any other pest is what travels with it. Mites transmit and amplify viruses, deformed wing virus being the one you can actually see, and colonies are commonly lost to the viruses rather than to the mites directly. Varroa reproduces inside sealed brood cells, so the mite population climbs alongside the brood through summer and peaks in late summer, which is exactly when the colony is raising the bees that have to survive winter. Untreated colonies are commonly lost in their first or second winter. The practical version of all this is that varroa is not something you check once. It is a number you keep. ColonyTrack logs your mite washes so you have the trend rather than a single reading, and flags a hive whose count has gone 30 days stale.

Track mite counts over time, and calculate mites per 100 bees →

The threshold is written in mites per 100 bees, and the alcohol wash is the test that produces that number. Take half a cup of bees, levelled off, which is roughly 300. Take them from a frame of open brood in the brood nest, where the nurse bees are, and check the queen is not on that frame first. Wash them in 90% alcohol, or in Dawn Ultra at 2 teaspoons per quart of water. Swirl gently for a minute rather than shaking: just enough movement that every bee is turning over. Vigorous agitation keeps the mites stirred back up into the bees and you undercount. Strain, count the mites, and divide by three for mites per 100 bees. Method credit to Randy Oliver at Scientific Beekeeping, whose own writeup is worth reading in full. A sticky board under a screened floor measures natural mite drop over several days, which is a reasonable trend line but is not mites per 100 bees and cannot be compared against the threshold. Wash every 30 days through the active season, and treat based on what the number says. The Honey Bee Health Coalition keeps a free decision tool that takes your count, your temperature, whether supers are on and whether there is brood, and tells you which options are actually open to you right now. The late summer and autumn counts carry the most weight, because those are the bees that raise your winter bees.

Randy Oliver: how to perform a mite wash →

Honey Bee Health Coalition: Varroa management decision tool →

Treat when a wash comes back at 3 mites per 100 bees or higher. Between 2 and 3 you are in watch territory: keep washing on a short cycle and have a treatment ready, and plenty of beekeepers act at 2 rather than waiting. In a half-cup sample of about 300 bees, 6 mites is 2 percent and 9 mites is 3 percent. Use an alcohol wash for this: a sticky board measures natural mite drop rather than mites per 100 bees, so it is useful for trends but it cannot give you the number the threshold is written in. Do not wait for visible signs such as deformed wings, because by then the infestation is well advanced. Timing matters too: the late summer and autumn counts are the ones that decide whether the colony goes into winter with healthy bees.

Test every 30 days and treat when the count says to, rather than on a date. A calendar tells you when mites are usually worst; only a wash tells you what your colony actually has, and two hives on the same stand can differ. Use an alcohol wash, count mites per 100 bees, and treat at 3 or above. Between 2 and 3, wash again sooner and watch which way it is moving. The late summer and autumn counts carry the most weight, because those are the bees that raise your winter bees and a colony going into autumn with a high load will not recover on its own, but that is a reason to test then rather than a reason to treat then. Follow the label on whatever you use.

We do not rank products, and you do not need us to. The Honey Bee Health Coalition keeps a free decision tool that asks your mite count, your temperature, whether your honey supers are on and whether the colony has brood, then shows you which products are actually usable in those conditions. Start there. It works because the choice is narrowed for you more than you might expect, and by things you can check before you buy. Temperature. Several products carry a labelled temperature range and are unusable outside it. In a hot August that rules options out before anything else does. Honey supers. Whether a product may be used with supers on is stated on its label. It is not a judgement call and not a risk you weigh. Brood. Oxalic acid only reaches mites riding on adult bees, so a single application into a colony full of capped brood leaves most of the mite population untouched. Formic acid penetrates the cappings, which is why the two behave completely differently in the same colony on the same day. Your own rules. What is registered and permitted varies by state, and in California by county. We keep a regulations reference so you can check yours rather than guess. Past that, read the label of whatever you are considering, and read it before you buy rather than after. The label carries the rate, the placement, the temperature range, the removal window, and the supers restriction, and it is the legal document. ColonyTrack records what you applied and when, counts the days, and reminds you to pull the product at the end of its window. Three things come up constantly and are worth stating plainly. Powdered sugar dusting has not been shown to control varroa. A screened bottom board is a floor, not a treatment. Drone brood removal does reduce mites, but only if the frame comes out before the brood emerges, and if you forget it you have raised mites on purpose.

Honey Bee Health Coalition: Varroa management decision tool →

Check the rules where you keep bees →

Treatment windows and removal reminders →

The split is not as clean as the words make it sound. Formic acid and oxalic acid are both organic acids, and both are registered miticides carrying EPA labels, restrictions and removal windows, exactly like the synthetics. Thymol is a plant compound and also a registered product. In this context "organic" usually means the active ingredient occurs in nature. It does not mean gentle, it does not mean unregulated, and it does not mean safe to improvise with. Formic acid is one of the harsher things you can put in a hive and will kill a queen if it is applied in the wrong conditions. What actually differs between products is resistance, penetration, and restrictions. Varroa has developed resistance to some synthetic active ingredients in some regions, which is why rotating between different actives is standard practice rather than a preference. Some products reach mites under the cappings and some only reach the mites riding on adult bees, which changes what a single application can possibly do. And some are labelled for use with supers on while others are not. We do not tell you which to use. Read the label, check what is registered where you keep bees, and log what you applied, so that next season you can look at what your counts actually did afterwards instead of trying to remember.

Yes, and in most of the country the late summer treatment is the one that matters most, because those are the bees that raise your winter bees. Two constraints decide what you can use. Temperature. Several products carry a labelled maximum, and applying above it can harm the colony as well as failing to work. In a hot summer this rules out more than beekeepers expect. Honey supers. Whether a product may be used with supers on is on the label, and it is not advice. It is a condition of the product's registration. Where a label says to remove supers, contamination of a crop you intend to eat or sell is precisely what that clause exists to prevent. Do not apply a miticide with supers on unless that product's own label says you may. The count still decides, not the season. Wash, and treat at 3 mites per 100 bees or above. The Honey Bee Health Coalition decision tool takes both of those constraints as inputs and will show you what is open to you at your temperature with your supers where they are.

Honey Bee Health Coalition: Varroa management decision tool →

Integrated pest management means using several tactics together and letting measurement decide which of them you need, rather than applying one product on a schedule and hoping. For varroa the parts are monitoring, so that you are acting on a number rather than a feeling; cultural and mechanical tactics such as drone brood removal or the brood break you get from a split, which cut mite reproduction without a chemical; genetics, choosing stock selected for mite resistance such as VSH; and treatment when the count calls for it, rotating active ingredients so resistance does not build against any one of them. Monitoring is the part that makes the rest work. Without a count before and after, you cannot tell whether anything you did helped, and you will keep repeating whatever you happened to do the year a colony survived. ColonyTrack puts mite washes and treatments on the same timeline, so the effect of what you did is something you can look at rather than something you remember.

Washes and treatments on one timeline →

Mite populations grow through the season and, left alone, keep growing. The damage is mostly viral. Varroa transmits and amplifies viruses, and deformed wing virus is the one you can see, as bees emerging with crumpled wings that will never fly. By the time you are seeing them the load has been high for some weeks already, because the bees showing it were infected as larvae under the cappings. What usually follows is that the colony stops replacing its workforce as fast as it loses it. From outside the collapse looks abrupt even though it was not: a hive that looked strong in September can be empty in November, with stores still in the boxes and almost no dead bees on the floor. Colonies that go down this way also get robbed out, and that moves mites into the hives around them, including the rest of yours. Untreated colonies are commonly lost in their first or second winter. Beekeepers who do keep bees without treatment are generally doing it with stock selected for resistance and a great deal of monitoring, not by leaving hives alone. The counter to all of it is a number taken regularly. Wash every 30 days, log it, and treat when the count says to.

Oxalic acid only reaches mites that are riding on adult bees. It does not penetrate the cappings. That single fact explains most of what beekeepers find confusing about it. In a broodless colony, where every mite in the hive is necessarily out on a bee, one correctly applied treatment removes the great majority of the mite population. In a colony with capped brood, most of the mites are under the cappings and out of reach, so the same application does far less than the broodless figures suggest. That is why oxalic acid is associated with the broodless window, and why applications during the brood season are given as a course spread over several applications rather than as a single one. We do not print rates, methods or intervals. Those are on the label of the product you bought, they differ between products and between application methods, and the label is the legal document. Oxalic acid vaporization is legal at the federal level in the United States; whether it is permitted where you keep bees is a separate question worth checking. Vaporized oxalic acid is severely hazardous to the person applying it and calls for proper respiratory protection and care. ColonyTrack does the counting part. Log a course, tell it how many applications and how many days apart, and it tracks which application you are on and tells you when the next one is due.

Track a multi-application course, and calculate your mite count →

Feed your bees when they don't have enough stored food to survive, typically in early spring (before the main nectar flow starts) and in fall (after the last significant flowers fade). Most backyard beekeepers also feed new colonies in their first year to help them build up faster. Check your hive's stores during inspections: if you see mostly empty frames or fewer than two full frames of honey, it's time to feed. You can use a sugar syrup (1:1 ratio in spring, 2:1 in fall to mimic honey's consistency) in a feeder, whether that's an entrance feeder, top feeder, or frame feeder depends on your setup.

For feeding bees, use a 1:1 ratio of sugar to water by weight (or volume) in spring and summer, and a 2:1 ratio in fall and winter. The 1:1 mix mimics a nectar flow, while the thicker 2:1 in autumn has less water in it for the bees to evaporate before they can cap it, which matters when the season is running out. Never use honey as a substitute for feeding. It can introduce disease, and always let the syrup cool before offering it.

Syrup works best in fall (September–October) when bees can process and store it; fondant or sugar candy is better for late winter (February onward) when bees can't fly and need emergency food they can eat directly from the comb. If you're feeding now and it's cold, switch to fondant or sugar candy, syrup can ferment or crystallize, and bees may not break cluster to reach it. Many beekeepers use both: syrup in early fall, then fondant bars placed right on the brood cluster as a backup in late winter.

You only need pollen patties during times when natural pollen is scarce, typically late winter through early spring, or during extended dry spells in summer. If flowers are blooming and your bees can forage freely, they'll collect their own pollen and you can skip the patties. The best time to offer them is when you see frames with little or no pollen stores, or when you're trying to boost a weak colony before the main flow. Place a patty directly on top of the frames where your bees cluster, and replace it every week or two if they're consuming it.

Your hive should have at least 60–90 pounds of honey stored by late fall, depending on your climate. Cold regions need closer to 90 pounds, while milder areas might get away with 60. A good rule of thumb is that a deep frame of capped honey weighs about 7 to 8 pounds, so you're looking at roughly 8 to 12 frames completely full on both sides. The safest approach is to leave two full deep boxes (or equivalent) untouched for the bees and only harvest surplus from above that. When in doubt, leave extra, hungry bees in January are in real trouble.

Feed your bees continuously for at least 2–3 weeks after installation, or until they've built out comb and stored enough honey and pollen to sustain themselves. The exact timing depends on your hive's progress, a strong colony building quickly may need less time than a slower one, so inspect every few days to gauge their stores and comb development. Stop feeding when you see capped honey and pollen in the frames and the bees are clearly slowing their consumption of syrup.

Yes, feeding can trigger robbing if you're not careful. Bees are attracted to open food sources, and if neighboring colonies smell it, they may attack to steal the honey or syrup. To minimize this risk, feed inside the hive using entrance feeders, top feeders, or frame feeders rather than open dishes, and try to feed in the evening when foraging activity is lower. If you do see robbing behavior. Bees fighting at the entrance or lots of traffic in and out, reduce the entrance with a robbing screen or stop feeding temporarily.

You can feed your bees honey from other sources, but it's risky and generally not recommended. Outside honey can carry diseases like foulbrood that are deadly to your colony, and you have no way to know the health history of its source. If you need to feed your bees, use sugar syrup instead, 1:1 in spring and 2:1 in autumn, and switch to fondant or dry sugar once it is cold, because bees cannot take down and cure liquid syrup in winter. The only exception is honey from your own hives. If you're supplementing during a dearth or before winter, use your own surplus.

Swarming is when a colony becomes so crowded and strong that about half the bees leave with the old queen to start a new home elsewhere. It's completely normal behavior. Bees do this to reproduce as a species and reduce overcrowding in the hive. In spring and early summer, when colonies are booming, swarming is most likely. Colonies keep empty queen cups on the comb for much of the season, so what is worth logging is whether a cup has an egg or a larva in it and whether it has been capped. While it's natural, many backyard beekeepers try to prevent it because losing half your colony means losing honey production and starting over. You can reduce swarming by giving colonies more space (adding boxes before they get too crowded) or by splitting a hive yourself before the bees decide to do it.

Bees typically swarm in spring and early summer, usually between April and June in most of the US, when the colony becomes overcrowded and daylight hours are increasing. The main trigger is a crowded hive with limited brood space, when the queen runs out of cells to lay eggs in, worker bees sense they need to split the colony, so they raise new queens and half the bees leave with the old queen to find a new home. You can reduce swarming by giving your bees more space (adding boxes before they feel cramped), checking the brood frames for queen cells during inspections, and splitting the colony yourself before they decide to go.

Bees swarm because they're ready to reproduce as a colony. It's their natural way of making a new hive. When a colony gets crowded, has plenty of food and resources, and the queen is laying well, workers sense that conditions are ideal to split. The colony raises new queens, and the old queen usually leaves with about half the workers within a day or two of the first queen cell being capped, roughly a week before that queen emerges. To prevent unwanted swarming, keep an eye on brood patterns and available space during spring and early summer. If you notice multiple queen cells or the hive feeling congested, add more space above the brood nest or split the colony yourself.

The most effective prevention is regular brood inspections every 7–10 days during spring and early summer to spot and remove queen cells before they're capped. You should also keep your hive from getting too crowded by adding a second box when the first is about 80% full, and ensure good ventilation and airflow. Other proven methods include requeening with a younger queen (older queens are more likely to swarm), breaking up the brood nest by rotating frames, or doing an artificial split if you see multiple capped queen cells. This actually lets the bees swarm naturally in a controlled way.

The main signs are lots of capped brood, lots of bees filling the hive, and the presence of queen cups or swarm cells (larger cells that look like peanuts hanging from the comb). When a colony feels crowded and well-fed, they build these cells to raise a new queen and split the hive. You might also notice the bees seem less interested in foraging and more clustered inside. Check for these signs during your spring and early summer inspections. That's peak swarming season. If you spot uncapped swarm cells you have a few days to act by splitting the colony or adding space. Once the cells are capped the swarm can leave on the next flying day, and may already have gone.

If your bees swarm, stay calm. It's a natural part of the colony's reproduction. Your first priority is to safely capture the swarm before it flies away; most swarms cluster on a nearby branch or object within a few hours of leaving the hive. You can gently brush or shake them into a box or bucket, then hive them onto frames that evening. A swarm normally arrives with your old queen already in it, so there is nothing to add: give them a week and then look for eggs. After the swarm leaves, inspect your original hive for queen cells to prevent a second swarm, and consider splitting the colony or removing excess brood to reduce swarming pressure next season.

If your hive swarms, the queen and roughly half your bees leave together to find a new home, which means you lose a significant portion of your workforce and brood-rearing capability for several weeks. The bees left behind will normally start raising a queen from the brood. Whether she emerges, mates and starts laying is the thing to go and check, and ColonyTrack counts those days for you from the date you log the swarm. To prevent swarming, manage overcrowding by adding extra boxes before the colony gets too congested, ensure adequate ventilation, and check for signs of swarming like queen cells during spring inspections. If you do spot swarms building queen cells, you can split the colony yourself to give them more space and reduce the urge to leave.

The queen lifecycle countdown, from the day you log the swarm →

Yes, you can split a hive on purpose. It's called a "divide" or "split," and it's a great way to increase your colony numbers or prevent swarming. The basic idea is to divide your bees, brood, and resources between two boxes so you end up with two separate colonies. You'll typically do this in spring when your hive is strong, moving some frames of brood, eggs, and food to a new box alongside the original hive, or moving it to a new location if you want two separate apiaries. The key is making sure at least one half has a queen or the ability to raise a new queen from eggs or young larvae (the queenless side will raise its own). A split does stress both colonies temporarily since they're smaller, so they'll take a few weeks to rebuild. Start splits in spring when you have the most resources to work with.

Spring is ideal, April through early June in most of the US, when colonies are building up fast and have plenty of foragers to support a new hive. You want a strong parent colony with at least three frames of brood, plus a good egg-laying queen or the resources for the split to raise a new one. Timing matters because a split made too late in summer may not build up enough population and stores to survive winter. Aim to make splits when your colony is growing quickly but before the main nectar flow peaks. You want them focused on building rather than rushing into honey production.

Nosema is a fungal infection caused by a parasite that damages a bee's digestive system, making it unable to absorb nutrients properly. Dead bees near the entrance, or a population that drops away in spring, are worth recording. Many different things produce that same picture, though, and nosema is only told apart from them by looking at bees under a microscope. The disease spreads through contaminated food and water, so it's most common in crowded, damp hives during cooler months when bees cluster together. You can prevent it by ensuring good ventilation, avoiding excessive moisture, and keeping your hive clean. If you suspect nosema, especially if you're seeing unusual bee losses. You can help manage it by replacing old comb and giving the hive a clean brood box.

Chalkbrood is a fungal disease that kills bee larvae, turning their bodies into hard, mummy-like shells inside the cells, usually white or chalky in color, which is where the name comes from. It's caused by a fungus called Ascosphaera apis and spreads when larvae ingest spores, typically in cool, damp conditions or overcrowded hives. Note the date and roughly how much of it you are seeing, then look again next inspection. Whether it matters in your hive is not something a single frame tells you, and what it does next is the useful part. You'll spot it during spring inspections as small, hard pellets in cells; if you see just a few, your bees often clean them out themselves. To prevent it, ensure good ventilation, avoid overcrowding, and keep hives in sunny spots so they dry out naturally.

Small hive beetles (SHBs) are dark brown or black insects about the size of a grain of rice that invade honeybee colonies to lay eggs. The larvae feed on pollen, honey, and brood, leaving a slimy mess and often causing bees to abandon the hive if the infestation gets bad enough. You'll spot them hiding in the corners of frames or near the bottom board, especially in weak colonies. They're mainly a problem in the southeastern US but are spreading, so it's worth checking for them during inspections. Note how many you saw and where, and check the same spots next inspection so you can see whether the number is going up.

Record where you found them and how much comb is affected, then check the same frames next inspection. The moths on their own do not tell you how the colony is doing. However, they do serious damage: the larvae tunnel through comb, eating wax and pollen, which weakens the hive's structure and food stores. They're most dangerous to weak colonies, package bees, or hives already stressed by disease or poor nutrition. Your best defense is keeping colonies strong through good nutrition and regular inspections. If you spot wax moth damage during hive checks, remove and replace heavily damaged comb. Storing extra equipment in a freezer and keeping your apiary clean also helps prevent infestations from taking hold in the first place.

Prevention comes down to three things: keeping your colonies strong, maintaining good hive hygiene, and storing equipment properly. A healthy, populous colony with a strong queen will police itself. The bees will naturally exclude small hive beetles and prevent wax moth larvae from establishing. Remove old comb and clean up debris during inspections, and never leave extracted frames sitting around exposed; store them in a freezer or sealed containers where moths can't lay eggs in them. The key is catching weaknesses before pests move in, once either pest gets established, they're much harder to control.

Mold grows in hives when there's excess moisture trapped inside, usually from poor ventilation, inadequate airflow, or high humidity in your beekeeping area. Bees can manage some moisture naturally, but if your hive can't dry out between rainy seasons or you're in a very damp climate, mold (often appearing as fuzzy growth on frames or comb) becomes a problem. The best prevention is ensuring good airflow through your hive with a screened bottom board or ventilation holes, and reducing condensation by avoiding overcrowding and maintaining proper hive spacing. If you notice mold during an inspection, note where it was and how much, then look at the same spot next time to see whether the bees have cleaned it up.

Ten-frame is the better choice for most hobbyist beekeepers because it's the standard size, making it easier to find equipment, swap frames between hives, and sell or trade gear later. Eight-frame equipment is lighter and easier on your back during inspections, which matters if you have physical limitations, but you'll pay more per frame and have harder time sourcing replacements or nucs. If you're just starting out, go with 10-frame unless you know you struggle with lifting. You can always add an eight-frame nuc later if you want to experiment with a lighter setup.

Most hobbyists do better with a mix of deep and medium boxes. Use one or two deeps for the brood box (where the queen lays eggs), then add mediums for honey storage on top. They're lighter to lift when full, which saves your back and makes harvesting easier. If you go all deep, you'll have a stronger brood area and fewer boxes to manage, but a full deep of honey weighs 80+ pounds, making inspections and honey extraction harder. Mediums are the sweet spot for most small operations since they're easier to handle while still giving bees plenty of storage space. Your choice also depends on your physical strength and how much you're willing to spend upfront; deeps cost less per box, but mediums pay dividends in convenience over time.

Frame size refers to the box depth they fit in, deep frames are tallest (9⅝ inches), mediums are mid-sized (6⅝ inches), and shallow frames are smallest (5¾ inches). Deep frames hold the most honey and are standard for brood boxes where the queen lays eggs. Mediums and shallows are lighter and easier for beekeepers to handle, so many use them for honey supers (the boxes you harvest from). Most beginners start with all-deep setups for simplicity, but mixing mediums or shallows on top lets you pull frames without straining your back.

Wood frames are generally the better choice for beginners because they're more durable, easier to inspect, and last longer than plastic. Plastic frames are cheaper upfront and lighter to handle, but bees often build comb unevenly on them, and they can warp or crack over time. Most experienced beekeepers stick with wood frames with a thin foundation (wired or unwired) for the best balance of durability and bee acceptance. Whichever you choose, consistency matters, stick with one type per hive so frames are interchangeable.

Both work fine for beginners, so choose based on your budget and preference. Wax foundation is what bees prefer and what they'll draw out most naturally, but it's more expensive and can sag in hot weather. Plastic foundation costs less, lasts longer, and is easier to clean, but some beekeepers find bees are slightly slower to accept it, though this usually isn't a real problem in practice. Most new beekeepers start with plastic to save money, then switch to wax once they're more comfortable.

A honey super is an extra box you stack on top of your brood boxes where bees store surplus honey for you to harvest. It's shallower than a brood box, making the frames easier to lift when they're heavy with honey. Add your first super when the bees have drawn out and nearly filled the top brood box with honey and pollen, typically in spring once a strong flow starts. A good rule of thumb is to add it when you see 7 or 8 of the 10 frames covered with comb. If you wait too long, bees may swarm because they've run out of space to expand. It's easier to spot when they're ready for that next box.

Start with a 10-frame medium super (also called a "half-depth" or "Illinois" super) for honey storage. It's the sweet spot for beginners. A full-depth super holds more honey but gets heavy fast (up to 90 pounds when full), making it hard to lift and extract. Medium supers max out around 60 pounds and are much easier to handle. For your brood box below, use either a full-depth or a medium, depending on what your hive came with. Most packages and nucs start with full-depth brood boxes, so stick with that for consistency.

Wait until daytime temperatures are consistently 50°F or warmer, ideally during a calm, sunny day when bees are actively foraging. Most beekeepers get their first real look in as soon as a calm day breaks 50F, which is late February or March across the south and west, and April or May further north. Your main goal is to check that the queen is alive, brood is present, and the colony has enough food stores to last until flowers bloom.

In spring, focus on whether your colony survived winter and has enough food and brood to grow. Check for a laying queen (look for eggs and young larvae), adequate honey and pollen stores, and signs of disease like spotty brood patterns or unusual odors. Record what you find and compare it against this hive's last autumn inspection, since a single spring look tells you where the colony is now rather than what has been happening all winter.

Add honey supers when your brood box is about 80% full of bees and brood, usually 4–6 weeks after your colony is established in spring. You want the colony strong enough to fill the extra space, or they'll struggle to keep the brood warm and may get defensive. Watch for bees clustered on the outer frames with few empty cells in the brood box; that's your signal. Place a queen excluder between the brood box and super so the queen stays below. If the super holds bare foundation rather than drawn comb, bees are often slow to cross an excluder to start it, so many beekeepers leave the excluder off until the comb is drawn.

A nectar dearth is a stretch when little or nothing is blooming, so there is no fresh nectar coming in. It usually falls in midsummer or late fall depending on your region. During one, bees eat through stored honey faster than usual and colonies get noticeably touchier, and robbing starts easily. To manage it, make sure your colonies have stores going in, and feed sugar syrup or fondant if they run low. Plant things that bloom during your local dearth if you can, and ask your bee club which ones actually work in your area. When you do open a hive during a dearth, work quickly and keep honey and syrup covered, because that is what sets robbing off. Do not put mite treatment off because there is a dearth on. The late summer dearth is the same stretch when mite counts peak and the colony is raising the bees that have to carry it through winter, so it is the treatment that matters most, not the one to skip. Defensiveness during a dearth is a robbing problem and you manage it by working fast and reducing entrances.

Robbing usually happens when your bees can't find enough food in nature, either late summer, fall, or during a nectar dearth. Weaker hives or those with exposed honey are especially vulnerable targets because bees follow the scent of food. To stop it, reduce entrance sizes on all hives to make them easier to defend, remove any open honey or spilled nectar, and space hives farther apart if possible. If robbing is already happening, it can escalate fast, so act immediately.

Start fall feeding in late August or early September, depending on where you live, about 6–8 weeks before your first hard frost. Your goal is to give bees time to process and store the syrup as honey before cold weather arrives, when they can't fly to forage or digest fresh syrup efficiently. The best timing is when a strong nectar flow (like from summer flowers) has ended but before temperatures drop below 50°F regularly. That'll help you gauge exactly when your hive needs supplemental feeding. A good rule of thumb: if you see less than two full frames of honey stored, it's time to start.

Late summer, and the reason is specific. The bees that carry a colony through winter are raised in late summer and early fall, and they are physiologically different from summer bees: they carry the fat body reserves that let them live for months rather than weeks. Varroa feeds on the fat body. A colony that raises its winter bees under a high mite load goes into winter with bees that were damaged before they ever emerged, and nothing you feed them afterwards undoes it. So the count that matters most is the one you take before those bees are raised, not after. In much of the US that means testing through August and acting on what you find, rather than discovering the problem in October when the brood is gone and the bees you needed have already been made. That said, the count decides, not the calendar. Wash every 30 days, treat at 3 mites per 100 bees or above, and give the late summer washes the weight they deserve. ColonyTrack tells you when a hive's last count has gone stale.

Honey Bee Health Coalition: Varroa management decision tool →

Mite tracking, and a free mites-per-100 calculator →

Start preparing in late summer or early fall by ensuring your colony has enough stored honey, typically 60–90 pounds depending on your climate, and a healthy queen. Reduce entrance openings with a rim or reducer to help bees defend against robbers and mice, and consider wrapping hives in insulation (tar paper or commercial wraps) if you live where winters drop below freezing for extended periods. Check that your hive has good ventilation to prevent moisture buildup, which kills bees faster than cold, so ensure the top has an upper entrance or ventilation board. In mid-to-late fall, do a final inspection to confirm the brood pattern looks strong and there are no signs of disease, then leave the colony undisturbed until spring. Avoid opening the hive once temperatures drop consistently, since you'll disrupt the cluster and waste their stored energy.

The biggest killers of winter colonies are starvation, cold, and varroa mites, often working together. A colony needs at least 60–80 pounds of honey to survive winter, and many beekeepers underestimate how much their bees consume during the cold months. Cold itself rarely kills healthy colonies, but it does trap bees in a tight cluster where they can't access honey stores in other parts of the hive, so poor hive setup or blocked entrances make it worse. Varroa mites weaken bees throughout fall and winter, making them more vulnerable to disease and less able to maintain warmth, which is why treating for mites in late summer and fall is critical. Moisture buildup in the hive during winter also kills colonies, condensation forms on the roof and drips onto the cluster, chilling the bees. Making sure your hive has ventilation (a small upper entrance or screened inner cover) helps prevent this. If you're tracking your hive's health through the season with detailed notes on stores and mite counts, you'll catch problems before winter arrives and make better decisions about when to feed or treat.

Wait until daytime temperatures consistently reach the mid-50s°F or higher, usually late February to March depending on your region. Your bees need warm enough weather to fly out and forage, otherwise you're just letting heat escape from the hive. Do a quick "peek and poke" first: open the hive for just 5–10 minutes on a calm, sunny day to check that your bees are still alive, there's food nearby, and the cluster looks healthy. Save a full inspection for when it's consistently 60°F+, so you won't chill the brood.

Most first-year hives won't have surplus honey to harvest. Your bees spend their first season building comb, raising brood, and storing enough honey to survive winter, which typically means they need 60–80 pounds for the cold months. If you live in a region with a strong spring flow and your hive builds up quickly, you might see a small surplus by late summer, but it's risky to take it. Wait until your second year when the colony is established and you can be certain they have adequate stores.

Honey is ready when the bees have capped it, which is their signal that the moisture is low enough to keep. As a rule of thumb take frames that are at least 80 percent capped. You can also tip a frame flat and give it a firm shake: if nectar sprays out of the uncapped cells it is not ready. Moisture should be around 17 to 18 percent, and a refractometer is the only way to actually know rather than guess. Check frames in late summer or early fall, timing depending on your region, and only take what is above what the colony needs for winter. For most of the US that means leaving 60 to 90 pounds of capped honey on the hive, nearer 90 in cold climates and 60 in mild ones. In practice that usually means leaving the brood boxes alone entirely and harvesting from the supers above them. Logging how full each super is in ColonyTrack as the season goes lets you watch the progress rather than opening everything up repeatedly to check.

Log super fullness without opening every box →

The best method depends on your hive count and budget. For most hobbyists with a few hives, a hand-crank or electric centrifugal extractor is ideal. It spins frames to fling honey out without damaging the comb, so bees can refill it next season. You'll need an extractor (around $100–$300 used), a strainer, and clean buckets; uncapping frames with a hot knife or capping scratcher takes the most time upfront. If you only have one or two hives and want to start simple, a crush-and-strain method works fine, just cut comb into cheesecloth, hang it over a bucket overnight, and let gravity do the work. The trade-off is you destroy the comb, so bees have to rebuild it (costing them resources and time). Once you've extracted, keep honey in food-grade buckets in a cool, dark place. It doesn't spoil and will last indefinitely.

Store honey in a cool, dark place at room temperature, a pantry or cupboard works perfectly. Glass jars are ideal because honey won't absorb flavors or odors from glass, and you can easily see what you have. Honey naturally lasts for years (even indefinitely if kept dry), so airtight lids prevent it from absorbing moisture from humid air, which could cause fermentation. Avoid the refrigerator unless you live somewhere very hot and humid, cold temps make honey crystallize faster, though this doesn't affect quality and you can simply warm the jar in hot water to liquefy it again.

Place your hive in a spot that gets morning sun (at least 6 hours daily), has good air drainage, and faces away from strong afternoon winds. The location should be reasonably level, away from standing water, and positioned so the entrance faces south or southeast. This helps bees warm up quickly in the morning and reduces moisture buildup inside the hive. If possible, keep your hive 10–15 feet from your neighbors' property line, and try to position it so flying bees don't travel directly over patios or walkways. Make sure you can easily access the hive for inspections without trampling your yard, and consider placing it in a spot shaded during the hottest part of summer if you live in a very hot climate. ColonyTrack records the temperature, conditions, humidity and wind with each inspection, so what the weather was doing that day sits alongside what you saw.

Weather recorded alongside every inspection →

Honeybees thrive with at least 6 hours of direct sunlight daily, though 8+ hours is ideal. Morning sun is particularly valuable because it helps bees warm up and exit the hive earlier in the day, giving them more foraging time. Afternoon shade or dappled light is fine and actually helpful in hot climates, where excessive heat can stress the colony. If your location gets only 4–6 hours of sun, your bees will likely still survive, but they may be less productive and slower to build up in spring.

Wind stress weakens colonies by cooling the hive, scattering foragers, and making it harder for bees to maintain their cluster. Position your hives on the leeward (sheltered) side of buildings, dense shrubs, or trees, even a natural windbreak 10–15 feet away makes a real difference. You can also build a simple wooden or burlap screen around the hive's exposed sides, leaving the entrance clear; this blocks wind without trapping moisture, which causes more problems than the wind itself. Make sure your hive stand is stable and level so wind can't tip it over.

Yes, you can move an established hive, but timing and distance matter a lot. If you're moving it less than 3 feet, do it gradually, shift it a few inches every few days so foragers can reorient without getting lost. For longer distances (more than 3 miles), screen the entrance in the evening once all the bees are home, move the hive, and open it again at the new site that night or first thing the next morning. Lean a leafy branch across the entrance so they notice something has changed and reorient on the way out. Do not leave a colony shut in for a day or more: a closed hive overheats fast, and in warm weather that kills the colony. The trickiest scenario is moving it just a few feet to a few hundred feet away, foragers will return to the old spot, so you'll lose field bees and weaken the colony temporarily. If you must move it a short distance, the gradual shift method works better. Spring and fall are ideal moving times since there's less active foraging, while mid-summer is harder on the colony.

Use them, but know what they are good for. Online groups are genuinely useful for morale, for finding a local club, for a second opinion on something you have already measured, and for learning that whatever just went wrong in your hive has gone wrong for plenty of other people. They are unreliable for almost everything else, and the reason is structural rather than personal. Nobody answering can see your hive. They are working from one photo, at one angle, of one frame, without knowing your climate, your season, your mite count, or what you did last month. Confidence in a comment section has very little to do with accuracy, and the most emphatic reply is often from someone who has kept bees for one year three times over. Badges, post counts and follower numbers measure how much somebody posts, not how much they know. So sort the question by what it costs you to be wrong. Worth asking a group, because it is reversible: whether that is a swarm cell or a supersedure cell, whether to add a box, feeding questions, equipment questions, what a plant is, why your bees are doing something odd at the entrance. Not worth asking a group, because it is not reversible: destroying a colony, burning equipment, requeening on a stranger's read of a photo, skipping a mite treatment because someone says your count sounds fine, and any disease call at all. American and European foulbrood are reportable diseases, and the person who confirms them is your county agricultural commissioner or state apiary inspector. That visit is free, and the equipment you burn on a comment thread's say so does not come back. The single thing that improves the answers you get is bringing a number instead of a photo. A picture of a frame invites opinions. A mite wash result, with the date and the last three counts next to it, gives people something they cannot argue with, and it usually answers the question before you finish typing it.

Honeybees are generally docile and will only sting if they feel their hive is under direct threat. A calm, gentle approach during inspections, working slowly, avoiding sudden movements, and visiting on warm, calm days when foragers are out, greatly reduces the chance of stings. Even then, most stings are defensive, not aggressive. If you wear a veil and light-colored clothing, keep your movements deliberate, and use a smoker to calm the colony, you'll likely have very few problems. Remember that bees don't want to sting you any more than you want to be stung. It costs them their life.

First, stay calm and move away from the hive so you don't alarm the other bees. Scrape the stinger off your skin with a flat edge like a credit card rather than pinching it, since squeezing releases more venom. Wash the area with soap and water, then apply ice and take an over-the-counter antihistamine or pain reliever if needed. Most stings are just uncomfortable and resolve in a few hours, swelling and itching peak around day two or three. If you develop severe swelling in your throat, difficulty breathing, or signs of an allergic reaction, seek medical help immediately.

Yes, combining weak hives in late summer or early fall gives them a better chance of surviving winter together. A single stronger colony is more likely to maintain warmth and have adequate food stores than two struggling ones that might not make it independently. The best approach is to use the "newspaper method": place a sheet of newspaper between the two hive bodies (or between boxes), and let the bees chew through it over a few days. This gradual introduction reduces fighting. Combine during the evening or on a cool day when bees are calmer, and always unite the weaker colony into the stronger one by placing the weaker hive's frames on top. Decide which queen you are keeping and remove the other one before you combine. Two queens in the same box will fight once they meet through the newspaper, and you do not get to pick which one survives. Timing matters, do this when you still have a few weeks before your first hard frost, so the merged colony has time to settle and reorganize.

Light your smoker 10–15 minutes before you open the hive so it's producing steady smoke, then use short, gentle puffs, not long blasts. A few puffs at the entrance calms the guard bees, and another light puff or two between frames keeps them docile without stressing the colony. The smoke masks alarm pheromones and makes bees think a fire is nearby, so they gorge on honey and become less defensive rather than aggressive. Use dry fuel like wood chips, pine needles, or burlap; avoid anything toxic or too smoky that irritates your own eyes and lungs. If your smoker keeps going out, you probably need to pack the fuel more firmly or use material that's completely dry. A quick puff here and there is way more effective than constant smoking, overdoing it can stress the bees and disrupt their work.

Bees take orientation flights to memorize the location of their hive so they can find their way home. Young bees perform these short, hovering flights near the entrance, facing the hive while gradually backing away. This helps them map the hive's position, nearby landmarks, and the sun's angle for navigation. Without this mental map, foragers would get lost and never return, which would weaken the colony. You'll notice them most often on warm afternoons, and they are worth noting with the date. From outside the hive, orientation flights and robbing can look similar at a glance.