Ep157  More Springtime Tips: Keeping bees in the boxes, avoid the honey dome, get more comb drawn, know if your hive is queenright or queenless.

Ep157  More Springtime Tips: Keeping bees in the boxes, avoid the honey dome, get more comb drawn, know if your hive is queenright or queenless.

From Beekeeping at FiveApple by Leigh Wilkerson

May 14, 2026 · 35 min · Episode 159

About this episode

In this episode, Leigh Wilkerson shares essential springtime tips for beekeeping, including hive management and swarm prevention.

Ep157 More Springtime Tips: Keeping bees in the boxes, avoid the honey dome, get more comb drawn, know if your hive is queenright or queenless. In case you missed it: Ep156 Spring in the Bees! Ep 155 Interview with Colorado beekeeper and writer Tina Sebestyen Ep 153 Interview with James Lee of SBGMI ⬆️ available wherever you listen to podcasts Patron Exclusives: Patron exclusive show notes on Ep 155 which includes link to the split notes compendium. Links to Five Apple’s podcast on the Reverse Doolittle split on Patreon, with links to Tina’s how-to article as well as my own silly drawings of the process AND the link to the compendium of splits methods I teach (the handout when I speak to bee clubs) --------------------------------- Here's an extra tip for those who read show notes: If you see your hive swarm, and it was a large hive, there are probably enough swarm cells left in the original hive to cause afterswarms. It's wise to carefully go in the hive and look for swarm cells on frames. I like to relocate a frame with swarm cells, a frame with open nectar and ideally some pollen, and a capped brood frame to a nuc box and add a few shakes of bees (remember to never shake a…

People in this episode

Host: Leigh Wilkerson

Guests: Tina Sebestyen, James Lee

Topics covered

  • beekeeping
  • springtime tips
  • hive management
  • queenright
  • swarm cells

Keywords

  • beekeeping
  • spring tips
  • hive management
  • queenright
  • swarm prevention
  • comb drawing
  • honey dome

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Five Apple, SBGMI

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