Happy New Year!!
Congratulations, we’ve made it through all our extra activities surrounding the holidays and the many visits with friends and family. Time to get back to looking after our favorite little friends.
This past December you should have seen a natural drop in brood production, hopefully you were able to get your varroa treatments done while there was very little brood rearing. Your colonies should be pretty clear of mites here in January, even the beetle pressure should have taken a break. So now that we’re not chasing after mites and beetles. What should be in the plan for Florida beekeeper’s here in January?
January is a great time to go through your equipment. You’ll want to scrape and clean excess beeswax and propolis build up on your boxes, stored frames, and queen excluders. Repair and repaint your woodenware equipment, add 9 frame spacers to your supers, build any new boxes and frames. If you have any rendered beeswax, now would be a great time to re-coat your stored plastic foundation with beeswax if you have any leftover after scraping clean last year’s dead-outs. If you plan to expand in the new year, adding additional beeswax to your new frames of foundation will help your bees draw out new honey comb.
While working to renew your equipment, don’t forget to check to see if your bees need food. A few natural sources of pollen and nectar will begin to open this month, kicking off the New Year with new brood development. However, if your hives are light, feed your colonies sugar syrup and pollen substitute to stave off starvation.
What’s in Bloom
North & Central Florida
Red Maple, Spanish Needle, Wild Mustard, Willow
South Florida
Mexican Clover, Primrose Willow, Red Maple, Spanish Needle, Willow
Acer rubrum, Female Red Maple Blossoms 
Acer rubrum, Male Red Maple Blossoms 
Salix nigra, Swamp Willow