Keeping bees is really just a matter of doing the right thing at the right time. 🐝
Get the timing right and your colonies stay healthy, strong and productive. Get it wrong, even by a few weeks, and you can lose a hive before you know anything is amiss.
This month-by-month guide is built around the Central and Piedmont North Carolina season, where the year turns on tulip poplar, sourwood and goldenrod.
Work through it like a checklist, tick off each job as you go, and you will always be a step ahead of your bees. 🍯
First, pin down your local timing.
This calendar is set to Central and Piedmont NC. Your own hills and hollows shift the dates a little.
Mountain colonies run about two to three weeks later than this, and coastal colonies about two weeks earlier. Nudge every task to match your own patch.
- Check stores. Feed if under 40 lbs remain, as solid sugar works well.
- Give a single dose of oxalic acid early to clean up residual mites.
- Order nucs and packages now. Good stock sells out by spring.
- Combine or insulate colonies under four deep frames of bees.
- Clear dead bees and snow from the entrances.
- Red maple, henbit and dead nettle pollen arrives.
- Keep feeding carbs. Fast-growing colonies starve this month without help.
- Add a super or hive body late in the month as adults emerge.
- Re-queen colonies showing no brood by late February.
- Have swarm traps ready, as swarming can begin now.
- Pollen is plentiful, with maple and redbud nectar available.
- Keep feeding, since colonies outgrow their stores.
- Reverse boxes only if the bottom is fully empty of brood.
- Make splits and start queen rearing.
- Finish in-hive mite treatments by early April.
- The busiest month of the year. Procrastinators suffer.
- The main flow is heavy. Stop feeding except new or starving colonies.
- Have supers ready, as some colonies fill three in April alone.
- Heavy swarming continues.
- The best month in NC for splits and raising queens.
- Honey production is heavy. Keep supering ahead of the bees.
- Still prime time for splits and new queens.
- Provide a steady water source so bees leave neighbors alone.
- Watch for small hive beetles. Add traps if you see more than 20.
- Flow and wax building decline across eastern NC.
- Sourwood and basswood begin mid-month in northern and western areas.
- Pull or mark non-sourwood frames first if you want a pure crop.
- Check beetles every 7 to 10 days, and mites every 3 to 4 weeks.
- Flow ends, sourwood included, by mid-month.
- Dearth sets in. Take robbing precautions on weaker colonies.
- Return wet supers late in the day only.
- Replace any queen two years or older.
- Beetles, wax moths and mites are all very active.
- Dearth and pest pressure make colonies defensive.
- Harvest any remaining surplus honey by mid-month.
- Feed 1:1 or thinner to prevent starvation.
- Replace failing queens now, as good ones vanish until spring.
- Remove and store extra frames securely.
- Feed 1:1 early, then switch to 2:1 for the second half.
- Combine weak or queenless colonies late in the month.
- Winter bees are developing now. They need plentiful adults, good nutrition and low mite loads.
- Downsize the hive as the population drops.
- Remove all queen excluders by mid-month.
- Fall nectar flow in the last three weeks.
- Fit entrance reducers or mouse guards by month end.
- Last chance to fix nutrition and mites before winter.
- Bees tucked in with 60 lbs or more of stored honey.
- Minimize inspections to keep warmth and propolis seals intact.
- Add moisture control, such as a quilt box or candy board.
- Weight the lids against wind.
- Close screened bottom boards.
- Keep solid carbs on the hive: sugar bricks, candy boards or fondant.
- Give a single oxalic acid dose late in the month.
- Combine or insulate colonies under four deep frames.
- Judge stores by lifting the hive, not opening it.
- Review the year’s records.
🪲 Varroa plan for NC
- Early January: oxalic acid clean-up dose.
- Late February: first assessment.
- March: active management begins.
- Early April: in-hive chemical treatment finished.
- Summer: monitor every 3 to 4 weeks.
- Late December: second oxalic acid dose.
🔍 Check at every inspection
- Eggs or very young larvae present.
- Queen seen, or clear evidence she is laying.
- A solid brood pattern.
- Swarm cells, especially February to May.
- Enough room ahead of the bees.
- Small hive beetles and wax moths.
- Adequate food.
🌻 The NC nectar year
- February: red maple, the first real pollen.
- April to May: tulip poplar and blackberry, the main crop.
- Mid-June to mid-July: sourwood, in the mountains and west.
- Late July to September: hard dearth.
- Last 3 weeks of October: goldenrod and aster.
🥣 Feeding guide
- Winter: solid sugar, fondant or candy board, only if light.
- Late winter and spring: 1:1 syrup. February and March are the starvation months.
- Summer dearth: 1:1 or thinner, through August.
- Fall: 2:1 from mid-September to build winter stores.
🏆 The big three for winter
⚠️ Coastal and eastern NC: mind the storms.
If you keep bees near the coast, hurricane season runs from June through November.
Have a plan to secure or evacuate your hives before a storm hits, since a strapped-down or relocated hive is far more likely to survive than one left to the wind and flood.
Your NC beekeeping questions, answered
I’m in the mountains (or on the coast). Does this still work?
Yes, just shift the dates. Mountain colonies run two to three weeks behind this calendar, and coastal colonies about two weeks ahead. The order of jobs stays the same, only the timing moves.
What are the two months bees are most likely to starve?
February and March. Colonies grow fast in late winter and burn through their stores just before the first real flow. Keep carbs on the hive and check often, because a strong-looking colony can starve in days.
When should I harvest sourwood honey?
The sourwood flow runs roughly mid-June to mid-July in the mountains and west. For a pure crop, pull or mark your non-sourwood frames first, then take the sourwood supers once that flow ends.
What is the single most important winter task?
Controlling varroa mites. More colonies are lost to mites and the viruses they carry than to cold. Pair that with a young queen and 60-plus pounds of honey and you have given them their best shot.
Keep good records, and keep going
The best beekeepers are not the ones with fancy gear. They are the ones who watch their bees, keep notes, and act at the right moment.
Print this calendar, keep it by the hives, and tick off each job as the season turns.
Do that, year after year, and you will be rewarded with healthy bees, strong colonies and some of the sweetest honey around. Happy beekeeping. 🐝
Adapted from the NC State Beekeepers Association calendar by Nancy Ruppert, retired NCDA&CS Apiary Inspector.
