Salisbury and District Beekeepers Association (SDBKA)

Beekeeping Calendar The purpose of this calendar is to give the beginner a guide of what is needed, together with approximate timing. Of course years do vary, with some springs being several weeks in front or behind others. As gardeners will know, by August everything has levelledout. It would pay to look at the month either side of the one you are in, as there may be something relevant that needs doing, or should have been done. This calendar is not intended to be compreh

A swarm is the natural mechanism that a honeybee colony uses to reproduce itself. When a colony is particularly prosperous, bursting with bees and honey (often between April and July), the old queen leaves the hive with around half of the bees in the colony, and tries to find a suitable place to make a new home. The old colony will usually produce a new queen, and continue to occupy its old site. The swarm will often settle temporarily, for a few hours to a day or two, whi

Bees have evolved together with nectar- and pollen-bearing plants, indeed the entire colony development depends on the availability of flowering plants as a source of food. The bee uses nectar as a source of carbohydrate and pollen as a source of protein. A large part of the current crisis facing all bees is the lack of suitable forage due to intensive agriculture, widespread growing of cereal crops and monoculture. Many of our hedgerows have been removed; wild flowers are sp