South Devon is kind to bees. Winters are mild, spring comes early, and the mix of gardens, hedges, parks and riverbanks around Newton Abbot means there's usually something in flower. The pattern of the year is the same everywhere, though: build up, swarm, gather, then shrink down and wait.
Winter: the cluster (November to January)
When it's cold the bees form a tight ball on the comb, the winter cluster. Bees in the middle shiver their flight muscles to make heat, and the outside layer acts as insulation. The cluster slowly eats its way across the stored honey. The queen stops laying, or nearly so.
Beekeeper: leave them alone. Check the hive is heavy enough by lifting the back (called hefting), keep the entrance clear, and fit a mouse guard.
Late winter and early spring (February to April)
On mild days bees fly out for water and the first pollen: snowdrops and crocuses in the gardens, gorse, then goat willow by the river. Fresh pollen means the queen can lay again, and the colony starts to grow fast. Blackthorn, dandelion and the first garden flowers follow.
Beekeeper: the first quick look on a warm, still day. Is there a laying queen? Enough food? This is when colonies can starve, because they're rearing lots of brood before much nectar is coming in.
Late spring: swarm season (May and June)
By May the colony is crowded and busy. Apple blossom, sycamore, hawthorn and cotoneaster all flower now, and around here many gardens are alive with bees. This is also when colonies try to swarm, raising new queens and splitting in two (see Swarms).
Beekeeper: inspect every week or so for queen cells, add supers (boxes for honey) before the bees run out of space, and make splits to calm the urge to swarm.
The June gap
In many years there's a lull in late June, when the spring flowers have finished and the summer ones haven't started. A big colony can use up its stores surprisingly fast. You can see the dip in the forage calendar.
High summer: the main flow (July and August)
Now the big nectar sources arrive. Bramble fills the hedges, white clover flowers in the fields and verges, and in July the lime trees in Newton Abbot's parks and streets can bring in a flood of nectar on a warm day. Later come rosebay willowherb, Himalayan balsam along the River Lemon, and buddleia on the railway banks.
Beekeeper: keep adding supers, then take off the honey. Our extraction days are usually late summer (see From flower to jar).
Autumn: winding down (September and October)
The queen lays less, and the colony raises its long-lived winter bees. Ivy is the last big nectar source of the year, humming with bees on sunny autumn days. Its honey sets hard in the comb and makes good winter stores. Workers push the drones out.
Beekeeper: treat for varroa mites if needed, check the colony has plenty of stores (feed if not), shrink the entrance against wasps and robbing bees, and batten down for winter.
Watch a year go by
Hive Mind runs a whole year around our hives in about 20 minutes. Zoom right out, press 16×, and watch the colony grow in spring, peak in summer and shrink to its winter cluster.
Or open the hive in January, April, June, August and October, and see how the brood, pollen and honey move around the frames through the seasons.