Beekeeping equipment cleaning and spring preparation

When the weather warms a bit a beekeepers thoughts turn to cleaning equipment and then he sees his equipment and moans…”Oh No! Not again!” Well, yes, every spring the same thing happens! It’s one of the downsides of being a farmer…ya gotta haul out the manure occasionally!
So I start by stack and inspecting equipment, quickly evaluating what is worth saving and what needs to be tossed, burned, scrapped, saved and also what can be salvaged as trap hive equipment! Really old boxes I set up as trap stuff and then slip in a few frames for a lure. These boxes I set out at strategic locations in my apiaries and around areas that have had swarms in the past.
What’s amazing to new beekeepers is this is so easy they often forget to do it. And what’s even more important is to check weekly to see if there are any bees! I have overlooked swarms for weeks simply because I forgot to look. When your apiary is alive with bees sometimes you overlook a trap hive set off to the side.
Keep in mind as the days grow longer the girls will be flying longer and longer. I have begun feeding our girls pollen patties. It’s a way of helping the queens get the pollen stores for an early brood chamber. As the weather warms the queens will search out the warmest areas that contain sufficient pollen stores for her babies. Low pollen equals low brood equals small colony…simple equation…remember this in the spring! It’s when they need all the help you can give them!
I don’t agree with beekeepers who say ” I don’t want loafers, so I don’t feed my bees!” This is a silly concept much like a gardener saying, ” I want healthy crops, so I won’t feed them anything!” What a colony needs is lots and lots of food! We feed sugar water, using only cane sugar for our girls. The pollen patties, we use “Megabee” supplement which has done wonders for our girls!
We mix and roll our own patties because for a binder we use our own honey. This gives the ultimate lure that insures your bees will eat your own patties. Even our bee tree will eat the pollen patties if I simply lay them next to the opening! Remember this time of year what little is in bloom can only be accessed during the warmest part of the day. By giving them patties, they will be able to have pollen as long as they can get to it!
Bees like to store honey and pollen. It’s sort of coded into their DNA and if you cater to their needs you will be a more successful beekeeper. As lazy as I am I have already started sorting my equipment…sort of coded into my DNA also…so, don’t complain! Good days, bad days, get that equipment sorted and then you can start cleaning.
I will begin posting photos of equipment in various stages of cleaning. I hope those who are unsure will be able to better gauge their own boxes and frames.