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For more information, contact Heike Williams at heike.williams@oregonstate.edu

April 2026

in your Central Oregon Apiary

It seems like winter is almost over. The trees and early bulbs have bloomed……Wait, it’s a bit early for those isn’t it. The nights are still pretty consistently below freezing in early April, to mostly above freezing later.

Your bees are probably a little askew from the calendar dates you’re expecting. Many of us are finding the colonies are starting their spring build-up 2 or 3 weeks early, even though there are still cold nights. You have to take all this into account when planning for your bees.

Many of the fruit trees bloomed during the cold week at the end of March and beginning of April when the bees couldn’t get out to forage. That flush usually seems to come later in April, and normally provides some great forage. On a warm (65 or 70 degrees) day, I like to do an inspection to establish exactly how much stores (honey and pollen) they have, how many frames of brood there are, if there’s lots of activity in the top box (Langstroth) and NOTHING in the bottom one, and the baseline mite count for the year.

If only a few (2 to 4) frames in a double deep hive have honey, pollen and brood, it’s worth feeding them to keep them building. If there are quite a few (12 or more) then you shouldn’t feed (or be very watchful) as it could cause the colony to become honeybound and swarm.

If the hive has lots of bees/brood/food in the top box, and no brood in the bottom one (if there’s a small amount of brood in the bottom, it may die when you reverse the boxes), many folks like to reverse the boxes. The theory is that the bees like to move up as they’re expanding and if they aren’t reversed, the colony could become honeybound in the upper box and swarm. There is some controversy about this technique and beekeepers are successful without reversing.

If your colony is going gangbusters and getting full, you’ll want to add a second box (assuming it started with 1) and/or a super to avoid swarming. Or, you can split your hive. This time of year, assuming plenty of forage, if you do a standard split (essentially break the hive in half and add a queen to the half that doesn’t have a queen) or a walk away split (with a very full hive, just break it in two and let the half without the queen raise their own new one). Additionally, if you have 2 colonies, one is gangbusters and the other is dawdling, assuming queenright and no diseases, you can transplant a few frames of brood (including uncapped) and bees from one colony to the other. This is called equalizing, and helps the slower colony get going.

I also like to do a mite count. It sets the baseline for the season for that colony. If the number is very low (1) or 0, you probably won’t need to treat or recheck until June, as the bees are out-growing the mites at this time of year. If they are now too high, or just over the threshold, think about treating now or next month, depending on how high the numbers are.

Finally, if you’ve ordered a nuc or package to install yourself, think about preparing your equipment now, so you don’t forget anything at the last minute.

Happy Beekeeping,

Allen Engle