Clean Up Your Overwintered Hives

Reader Contribution by David Burns

Here my daughter Karee is setting up more hives to expand our numbers this year. Here in Central Illinois it’s time to head out to the hives and clean up. It’s not quite time to reverse the deep hive bodies because we still have weeks of winter left.  And you NEVER want to reverse the hive bodies when the brood nest extends into both boxes. I have hives that overwintered in various ways.

Some clusters have moved all the way to the top box, which on some of my hives are medium supers. Others are in the top of the deep second deep hive body, and others have expanded their brood nest into every square inch in the hive. Each hive requires different management styles. But one consistentcy is that the healthiest hive still has lots of dead bees on the bottom board. It’s a natural result of how bees make it through the winter.


Here’s a picture of a hive that has a brood nest all the way through all boxes. Even the lower box is full of bees and brood. So, I do not reverse this hive. I simply keep it all the same. They are in good shape to start up fast when the nectar flow starts. These hives will need to be split because they came out of winter already overcrowded. We sometimes cause this to happen by fooling the colony with brood patties and sugar water. Thus, the bees think they can start building up since pollen and nectar are available. Very little work needs to be done to a strong colony in late winter, especially when the brood nest area is throughout the hive.

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