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Preparation bee colonies for the season Overflow.

The beekeeper prepares their bee colonies to face the honey flow season to obtain the largest possible amount of honey. All the beekeeper’s operations aim to ensure that their colonies contain the maximum number of worker bees, especially before the start of the honey flow season, and to provide suitable space for brood rearing and honey storage.


To prepare bee colonies for the honey flow season, the beekeeper must follow sequential and important steps that enable them to enter and exit the honey flow season with an economically rewarding success.

How to Prepare Bee Colonies for the Honey Flow Season and Benefit from It

A) Preparation for the honey flow season begins early in spring, where the beekeeper starts feeding the bee colonies with diluted sugar syrups and pollen if available, or one of the pollen substitutes, to encourage the queen to lay eggs early enough to have forager worker bees ready at the appropriate time.

B) The beekeeper must pay attention to the flowering season of crops around their apiary to prepare the colonies for foraging without delay. If there are citrus orchards, flowering plants, fava beans, or other early-blooming crops, it is essential to advance brood production to ensure a large number of worker bees during the crop flowering months (February and March).

C) Regardless of the beekeeper’s comprehensive care for all the colonies, it is observed that colonies are not equally strong. Therefore, comb balancing and equalization are performed as follows:

  1. If some colonies have stored more honey than brood, the extra combs are removed and distributed to colonies that need them.
  2. Similarly, if a colony’s combs are filled with brood, the excess is removed and distributed to weaker colonies.
  3. If combs contain larvae (open brood) on one side and sealed brood on the other, the orientation of the combs is adjusted so that the open brood faces the hive's center and the sealed brood faces the outer sides of the hive.
  4. If one side of a comb is filled with eggs or brood while the other side is empty, the comb is adjusted so that the empty side faces the hive's center and the filled side faces outward, encouraging the queen to continue laying eggs.
D) Regular inspection every 7-10 days is necessary to prevent swarming during this period by addressing the factors that encourage it at the right time.
E) Weak colonies should be merged to form a stronger colony.

F) Gradually add empty frames (kept from the previous honey flow season or taken from colonies that do not need them) to ensure sufficient space for brood rearing and honey storage.

Q) Beekeepers should wire wooden frames, fix wax foundation sheets, and add them as needed to colonies requiring empty combs. Ensure that only strong colonies receive wax foundation sheets, as they can draw them quickly for use. Weak colonies should be provided with ready-made combs to save their energy. For more information, read Best Scientific Method to Arrange Wax Frames in a Beehive.

K) When the brood chamber becomes full of combs, add the super above it and transfer sealed or unsealed honeycombs from the brood chamber to the super. Alternate these combs with empty ones while filling the brood chamber with empty frames to expand the brood nest.

L) It is generally recommended to place nine combs in the super to allow enough space for cells to be drawn, honey to be stored, and sealed with wax. When the first super's combs approach fullness, add another super. It is preferable to place the new super between the brood chamber and the first super.

M) Some beekeepers prefer placing a queen excluder between the brood chamber and the super to prevent egg-laying in the supers. However, it has been observed that using it can hinder bee movement during the honey flow season.

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