What is happening in the hive?

January – The queen will be surrounded by thousands of worker bees in a cluster within the hive, there is little activity except on the odd warm day

February – The queen is still surrounded by workers in the hive starts laying eggs.

March – On a fine day bees will start to leave the hive, while the queen increases egg laying

April – As the weather warms up and early blossom appears bees will start collecting nectar

May – with good weather nectar and pollen will come thick and fast, the queen will be laying at her fastest rate

June – Honey can be removed from the hive, if high nectar flowers or crops are nearby

July – The main nectar flow will occur during this month

August – Colony strength begins to diminishes, outside activity reduces as nectar becomes less available

September – Hive population continues to reduce and honey crop can be removed

October – Bees are preparing for winter; this is an ideal time to treat them for parasites

November/December – Bees will form a cluster around the queen and will rarely been seen outside the hive

The monitoring equipment, measure temperature, humidity and audio to enable more to be learnt about the bee activity and to enable the prediction of swarming, allowing colonies to expand successfully