Mississippi Beekeeping Calendar

Mississippi State University Extension publishes this as Publication 4053, and the edition line on the page — the one repeated in the source note below — is a publication code rather than a date. The section reproduced here is the one headed "Beekeeping Tasks Specific to Each Season", which the publication introduces this way: "The following sections highlight the major goals for seasonal periods (spring, summer, fall, and winter), which are itemized on the monthly checklists."

Those sections come in four blocks of months, each with a subtitle naming what the block is about: surviving the winter period, rapid colony growth, the summer dearth in food, and preparing for winter. Two of the four are then split by the kind of colony you have. The winter block separates "Established Colonies" from "Preparing for New Colonies"; the spring block separates established colonies from "New Colonies". Those splits are kept below as headings, so a first-season beekeeper can read only the part written for them.

The calendar

July and August

• (mite check) Most spring honey should be harvested by mid-July for all well-established hives, and varroa treatments should begin (if warranted by sampling) before winter bees are produced.
• After the honey is harvested, there is often a question of what to do with the wet combs from the honey extractor. Most beekeepers allow the bees to lick these wet combs dry, and then the combs are frozen before being stored until needed for the fall honey flow.
• (mite check) Beekeepers who produce summer honey face challenges in managing varroa mites.
• Small hive beetles: During this time, small hive beetles reach their peak population in beekeeping operations and apiaries. It is crucial to intensify monitoring of bee yards and to combine weak colonies with stronger ones to avoid infestations by these pests.
• (mite check) Sampling for varroa mites: It is important to promptly check for varroa mites in colonies after harvesting honey to have enough time to reduce mite numbers before colonies start producing winter bees in September. It is best to sample for mites no later than mid-July, as some chemical treatments require the pesticide to be present in a colony for 45 days to work effectively.
• (mite check) Two chemical treatment strategies are used against varroa mites: long-term treatments and flash treatments.
• (mite check) Many long-term treatments are formulated as pesticides soaked into plastic, cardboard, or vinyl strips, and some of these strips are designed to hang in the brood nests of colonies for approximately 45 days. Pesticides are continuously released into the hive environment during this period to kill mites while they are on adult bees.
• (mite check) Flash treatments are designed for shorter exposures of pesticides into a colony, and the chemicals from these treatments kill mites over shorter periods of 3–10 days after application.
• (mite check) This calendar names a treatment option here; see the source.

Check a mite count with the varroa calculator.

September through November

• Hive preparations: As summer transitions to fall, it is important to place entrance reducers on beehives to help prevent robbing.
• After the main fall nectar flow, any extra boxes of empty comb should be removed from the hives. This prevents the colonies from having excess space to defend during the cold winter, especially above the brood nest and stored honey.
• Many beekeepers lack sufficient storage space for boxes of empty comb and choose to leave an extra box (usually a deep box from the summer brood chamber) at the bottom of the hives.
• Requeening colonies: Many beekeepers prefer to replace older queens with new queens in the fall of each year. This requires planning and preparation.
• Feeding: The amount of honey produced from a typical fall season is usually enough to give colonies at least 65–70 pounds of stored honey for the winter. Colonies can be fed sugar syrup in warmer weather if there are shortfalls.
• (mite check) This calendar names a treatment option here; see the source.

Check a mite count with the varroa calculator.

Established ColoniesPreparing for New ColoniesNew Colonies

Established Colonies

December through March

• Food reserves: During this period, it is crucial to ensure that the colonies have sufficient stored honey to endure the rest of the winter until mid-March. The quantity of food and its proximity to the bee cluster are significant factors. Inspect colonies at least once a month to assess the remaining food reserves.
• It is important to ensure that bee colonies have 65–70 pounds of stored honey for overwintering starting at the end of October. The heaviest combs of capped honey should be placed in the middle of the food box directly above the cluster of bees.
• assess if there is enough food for the bees to last until the next inspection.
• rearrange the food stores by moving empty combs from the center of the food box and replacing them with heavier combs of capped honey from the edges.
• The bees must be fed if they are likely to run out of food before the next monthly inspection.
• Dwindling cluster size: Egg-laying rates slow dramatically after the major fall honey flow ends in late October.
• A beekeeper should be concerned if the overall cluster size in a colony falls to fewer than four deep combs covered by bees from January through mid-March.
• Egg-laying by queens: Beekeepers should closely monitor egg-laying by queens starting in February and March.
• (mite check) Sampling for varroa mites: Varroa mites are a major threat as they transmit viruses to bees, leading to colony deaths from viral infections. Beekeepers need to make decisions about using miticides based on sampling mite populations and following specific threshold levels for treatment.
• (mite check) If the treatment threshold is reached in February, beekeepers can use either miticides or a non-chemical method to control the mites. One non-chemical method is drone trapping, which takes advantage of the fact that varroa mites are more attracted to drone brood.

Check a mite count with the varroa calculator.

April through June

• Swarm management: Honey bee colonies grow rapidly during periods of intense bloom when pollen and nectar are abundant.
• Crowding of the brood nest is a major cause of swarming in honey bees.
• providing empty combs in the brood nest for the queen to continue laying eggs at a high rate.
• providing honey supers to accommodate the rapid influx of nectar being stored by the bees.
• This is also an opportunity to make new bee colonies by splitting existing colonies into either nucs or true splits.
• Honey production: Beekeepers encourage honey bee colonies to store more honey than they naturally need to survive the winter. They achieve this by managing colonies to be larger than they would be in the wild.
• The times when honey is produced vary significantly between north and south Mississippi. In north Mississippi, the main honey flow happens from the end of March through early June, and it is due to Chinese privet and white clover blooms.
• In south Mississippi, the primary spring honey flow lasts at least 1 month longer than in the north, mainly because of the Chinese tallow tree, which is an excellent nectar and pollen source.
• Requeening colonies: Queen honey bees are considered good egg-layers for the first 2 years of their lives, and most beekeepers replace older queens with new queens on a regular basis.

Preparing for New Colonies

December through March

• If you plan to buy starter colonies and queens for the current year’s spring, they must be ordered within the first 2 weeks of January. Starter units are either nucs or packages.

New Colonies

April through June

• The main objective for newly established colonies is to help them grow and become stable enough to survive the winter. Many new beekeepers starting their first colonies may not have pre-made combs, so the bees must create them from foundation.
• Give new colonies installed in April sugar syrup to encourage comb construction and colony growth. This feeding should continue throughout the spring season or at least until the bees stop taking the syrup from the feeder.

North and south are not the same state

The publication makes the spring flow a matter of geography, and names the plants on both sides of the line. "The times when honey is produced vary significantly between north and south Mississippi. In north Mississippi, the main honey flow happens from the end of March through early June, and it is due to Chinese privet and white clover blooms." Further south the window stretches: "In south Mississippi, the primary spring honey flow lasts at least 1 month longer than in the north, mainly because of the Chinese tallow tree, which is an excellent nectar and pollen source."

That split is the publication's own, not an inference from a map. Everything else in the four blocks is written for the state as a whole.

A first season, and a summer without forage

The spring block's advice for new colonies starts from what they don't have: comb. "The main objective for newly established colonies is to help them grow and become stable enough to survive the winter", and since many beginners have no drawn comb, the bees have to build it from foundation. The instruction that follows is about feeding for that build: "Give new colonies installed in April sugar syrup to encourage comb construction and colony growth." Working out that syrup by weight is what the sugar syrup calculator is for.

The summer block is titled for a shortage. Robbing, the publication says, "happens more frequently when incoming nectar and pollen are diminished", and it puts the risk on the calendar: "Robbing is a serious problem when there is a dearth of food during summer (July to August) and fall/winter (November to March)." The practical consequence is stated in the same paragraph — that inspections in the heat of summer "should be infrequent and kept to a minimal amount of time when they do occur." Small hive beetles are in the same block, reaching "their peak population in beekeeping operations and apiaries".

Mite checks

The winter block opens sampling with a reason rather than a schedule: "Varroa mites are a major threat as they transmit viruses to bees, leading to colony deaths from viral infections." February is where the publication expects a decision, and it explains the timing in terms of honey: sampling then leaves room to act "far enough in advance of honey production and harvesting to avoid contaminating the honey." Drone trapping is offered there as a non-chemical option, because "varroa mites are more attracted to drone brood."

The summer block is stricter about the date. Harvest and sampling are tied together — "It is important to promptly check for varroa mites in colonies after harvesting honey to have enough time to reduce mite numbers before colonies start producing winter bees in September" — and it asks you to "sample for mites no later than mid-July", since a long-acting treatment needs weeks in the hive to do its work.

The publication attaches numbers to those decisions. They aren't repeated here or in the blocks above; the varroa calculator works a sample out and shows the Honey Bee Health Coalition's current levels beside it.