1. 
In January, we occasionally visit the apiary to check if the bees are wintering peacefully. We clean the hive entrances from dead bees. We collect their bodies in a plastic bag and burn them, as dead bees left near the entrance will attract tits, which will disturb the bees' peace.
2. 
During thaws, check if the back plugs and top cushions of the bee nests are damp. Replace damp ones with dry ones, warming them to room temperature, and dry the wet ones.
3. 
Do not disturb the bees' peace by listening to their buzzing through a tube or tapping the hive side with your hand. It is best to cover the hive entrance with glass in autumn: if the glass fogs up, it means the bees are wintering well.
4. 
If you notice that the bees are running out of food in winter (the bee cluster has risen to the top bars), prepare pollen-free candy dough, wrap it in gauze, and place it under the cushion, removing the divider so the bees can access it.
5. 
Prepare or purchase smaller honey supers (7-8 frames) for the spring honey flow, new frames, spare plugs, and cushions.

Is there anything else you need help with?

1. 

February is the most challenging time for bees to winter. Check by placing your hand under the cushion to see if the nest is warm and if there are any brood. If there is, insulate the nest, replace damp cushions and plugs with dry ones, and narrow the hive entrances.
2. 
Often at the end of February, especially after St. Matthias' Day (February 24), it warms up, and bees, especially southern ones, may take cleansing flights in the sun. Prepare for this by removing the shields and spruce branches from the hive entrances, and sprinkle ashes or black soil in front of the entrances to melt the snow faster. Straw and chaff can also be used for this purpose.
3. 
Observe the bees' cleansing flights – a keen beekeeper can learn a lot from them: how well your bees wintered, the strength of the bee colony, whether there is a queen, etc.
4. 
Check if the bees have enough food. Before the cleansing flight, give them pollen-free candy dough, and after the flight, provide candy dough with pollen.
5. 
If the bees have taken cleansing flights, check for mite infestation. This is easy to do with a hive with a removable bottom. About 10% of dead mites fall out over the winter. Knowing approximately how many bees are in the nest (about 2,500 bees per occupied frame), it is easy to calculate the mite infestation. If the infestation is high, on a warmer day, dust the bees with powdered sugar for varroa control or treat them with thymol.

Is there anything else you need help with?

Dead bees are removed from the hive entrances. If the bees do not fly out on the cleansing flight day, check by placing your hand under the insulation material. Warmth is felt when there is brood. It is advisable to check the outer frames. If they are light, insert a frame with open honey and bee bread into the nest, after keeping it in a warm room. If there are no frames with food, place candy dough on top of the nest or provide sugar syrup: 1.5 parts sugar to 1 part water. It is better to give the syrup poured into the frames. The hive bottoms should be cleaned as soon as possible, and all frames without brood should be removed from the nest. Replace damp and moldy insulation with dry material. It is advisable to check the hive debris with bee bodies in a veterinary laboratory for nosema and other bee diseases.

1. 
When the temperature reaches 15°C, a thorough inspection of the entire bee nest is carried out. The amount of brood, the queen's laying capacity, and the amount of food (at least 5-6 kg) are determined. The hive bottoms are thoroughly cleaned, mite infestation is checked, and the bees are fed candy dough.
2. 
Care is taken to ensure that the bee waterers always have fresh, soft (boiled) water.
3. 
Weak bee colonies or those without queens are combined with strong colonies. It is advisable to separate the combined colonies with newspaper, and after combining them, feed them candy dough or sugar syrup, warming the nest with bottles of hot water.
4. 
Mark the bee colonies that will need to replace their queens.
5. 
Mark the frames on which the bees wintered so that they can be replaced with new ones in the summer, removing them from the nest. This will reduce the likelihood of diseases.
6. 
From mid-April, start expanding strong bee colonies by adding one or two old frames or a frame with honey. Warmed frames are placed next to the brood, not between the brood.
7. 
When gooseberries bloom at the end of April and the bees start whitening the frames, the nests can be expanded with wax foundations.
8. 
When gooseberries and black currants bloom, place half-supers for the spring honey flow.

April is the first spring month with more warm days, allowing bees to fly more, bringing in pollen and nectar. At the beginning of April, willows, coltsfoot, and willows start to bloom, followed by maples (ash-leaved, silver, and common). Dandelions often bloom at the end of April. Sometimes, in early spring, like in 2002, stronger bee colonies can bring in marketable honey from willows and maples if supers are placed. With favorable weather, bee colonies develop quickly in April, so it is important not to delay expanding the nests.

May
 

1. 
During frosts, do not forget to insulate the bees, leaving the back plugs in the hive until the nests are fully expanded.
2. 
Monitor for chalkbrood disease. If chalkbrood is detected, treat the bees, transfer them to another hive, and replace the queen.
3. 
If the colonies are developing rapidly, to prevent swarming, limit the queen's work or transfer a few brood frames to a weaker colony.
4. 
To prevent swarming, always give the bees work and space to store nectar:
•  timely expand the nests and add supers,

•  extract honey and provide foundation sheets for comb building.

1. 
If you have pollen traps, place them on the hive entrances before the orchard bloom. Do not dry pollen in the sun.
2. 
Ensure the bee waterers always have fresh water.
3. 
After the orchard and dandelion bloom, extract the honey.
4. 
If possible, move the bees to winter rapeseed fields or raspberry patches.

Orchard Honey Flow

May is the time for maple and orchard blooming. In May, the sycamore, ginnala, and Tatarian maples bloom. Beekeepers should consider growing these maples as they bloom during the orchard bloom, and the latter two even during nectar dearth periods. Maple nectar would significantly supplement the orchard honey flow. Additionally, maples would beautify the homestead and create a windbreak. They are suitable for planting on slopes and other uncultivated, unsuitable areas for crops.
Orchard blooming begins with the gooseberry bloom. A few days later, the highly nectariferous black currants bloom, followed by the yellowing dandelion fields. Therefore, it is crucial for beekeepers in spring, already in April, not to delay expanding the bee colonies and carefully plan where the bees will store nectar to avoid running out of space. This problem is easily solved in multi-story hives, where the queen's egg-laying can be restricted with a queen excluder, and an additional empty super can be placed under the super with unripe honey. It is more challenging with Dadant and horizontal hives if they have only one-story supers. In years like 2001 and 2002, these hive designs often ran out of space for nectar storage, leading to swarming.
For novice beekeepers planning to start beekeeping, it is advisable to acquire or make multi-story hives, which save a lot of time and reduce labor costs.
In May, attention should be paid to the performance of the queens. Poor-performing queens should be culled, and queens should be ordered in advance for replacement or for forming new colonies. This can be done at the beginning of June.

Is there anything else you need help with?

1. 
At the beginning of June, after the orchard bloom and before the mustard, buckthorn, and raspberry bloom, there is a nectar dearth period. During this time, it is important to prevent swarming, monitor food supplies during bad, rainy weather, and consider increasing colonies by creating 3-4 frame nucs with brood and providing them with a queen.
2. 
At the beginning of June, cull and replace poor-performing queens. Before replacing queens, feed the bees generously with sugar syrup (1:1).
3. 
As buckthorn, raspberry, white clover, and summer rapeseed begin to bloom, it is advisable to add large supers.
4. 
If there is a good honey flow, limit the queen's work to ensure the bees have space to store nectar.
5. 
Monitor bee colonies for chalkbrood and foulbrood diseases. Foulbrood can be diagnosed in several ways when supers are added: by the unpleasant smell from the hive entrance, by the streaks left on the hive entrance, resembling melted wax or propolis, which bees leave when removing diseased brood, and finally by removing the supers and inspecting the bee nest.
6. 
Check for mite infestation. During this time, bees can be treated for varroa with natural remedies, such as aromatic herbs (thyme, wormwood, potato tops, tomato leaves, etc.), which are placed on gauze above the nest (supers) and changed every 3-4 days when they dry out. Formic acid can also be used, following the instructions.
7. 
At the end of June, extract raspberry honey.

Is there anything else you need help with?

July

The honey flow period continues. As the small-leaved linden and white sweet clover finish blooming, the summer honey flow ends. This is also influenced by the appearance of aphids on coniferous and linden leaves.
From July 15-20, honey should be extracted (the second extraction) and the bees prepared for transport to buckwheat, clover, or heather fields. Before this, frames suitable for wintering, made this year, are placed in the middle of the hive nest. Old frames with brood are moved to the edges of the nest. For colonies with 11 or more such frames, 1-2 artificial frames are added to the nest, and supers are placed. For weaker colonies, supers are not added, but 2 artificial and 2-3 drawn frames are placed in the nests.

August

1. 
After honey extraction, if the bees are not transported to heather fields or the second clover growth, start treating the bees for varroa. If a honeydew flow is expected, it is best to spray the bees with oxalic or lactic acid at this time. If no more honey will be extracted, treat the bees with Gabon or Apifos strips.
2. 
If a honeydew flow is expected (based on local vegetation), it is advisable to leave the supers in the hives after the last honey extraction. Extract the honey after the honeydew flow ends.
3. 
After extracting honeydew, heather, or clover honey, prepare the bee nests for winter, form the winter nest, remove unnecessary frames or move them behind the divider, and treat the bees for varroa. Check the mite infestation after treatment.
4. 
If there is no honey flow, stimulate brood rearing by feeding the bees 0.5 liters of sugar syrup every 2-3 days until the main feeding.
5. 
Around mid-August, place feeders and insert Gabon or Apifos strips. To prevent robbing, narrow the hive entrances.
6. 
Provide the bees with their entire winter food supply in large quantities over 2-3 feedings. It is important that each frame in the nest contains 2-2.5 kg of winter food.
7. 
Distribute the bee bread, covered with honey, evenly among all colonies so they have protein food for brood rearing in spring.
8. 
Cut out the remaining bee bread from the frames, mix it with honey, grind it, and preserve it. This is a good food supplement for both humans and bees in spring.
9. 
Store the removed frames in boxes with concentrated acetic acid pads on the frames or hang them in well-ventilated rooms to protect them from wax moths.
10. 
If you notice that the bees are suffering from chalkbrood or foulbrood after the last honey flow, treat them with medication and take all preventive measures.
11. 
Remember that August 15 is the day of Austėja, the goddess of bees, celebrated at the Ancient Beekeeping Museum in Stripeikiai (Švenčionys district).
If the bees do not expel the drones for a long time in August, it means something is wrong with the queen – the bees are rejecting her. Replace her immediately with a young mated queen.

Is there anything else you need help with?

September

1. 
By September 6, finish feeding the bees brought back from heather fields and clover for winter.
2. 
When arranging the nests, do not insert the back plugs at this time. To stop the queen from laying eggs, it is advisable to remove the cushions, leaving only a cloth or film above the nest.
3. 
If there is little brood, cut it out at the end of September and calculate the mite infestation. Usually, the last brood contains many mites. Destroying them will help the bees winter more peacefully.
4. 
After the brood is gone, check the bee colonies' nests, the amount of food, and if there are 5 frames in the colony. After additional winter feeding, remove the feeders along with the medication strips from the nest. Neither Gabon nor Apifos strips should be left for winter. The hive entrances, which were narrowed during feeding, should be widened, leaving more than 1 cm per frame.
5. 
During the final bee inspection, create passages in the frames near the top bars so the bees can easily move from one frame to another during winter.
6. 
Ensure good hive ventilation. When the weather gets colder, place the cushions.
7. 
If there are weak colonies or colonies without queens in the apiary, combine them with strong colonies.

Is there anything else you need help with?

October

1. 
In October, we check for varroa mites in bees for the last time. During August and September, wandering and robbing bees might have brought mites from other apiaries. If necessary, we treat with formic acid or fumigate with amitraz preparations. After treatment, we check for mites again.
2. 
In the second half of October, and sometimes at the beginning of November, bees take their last flight. We place mouse guards on the entrances and check if mice have invaded the hives.
3. 
As long as the average daily temperature is above freezing, we do not place the rear plugs. Additional insulation of the nests can encourage the queen to start laying eggs again.
4. 
Sometimes beekeepers extend the hive entrances with wooden shields or slate fragments. It is advisable to remove all of this from the entrance, as it makes it easier for mice to enter the hive.
5. 
We take care of the combs to prevent moths from infesting them. We clean the frames and melt the wax cut from the frames.
6. 
We inspect the roofs of the hives for their tightness. We check if tree branches are touching the hives, as their rustling will disturb the bees' peaceful wintering.
7. 
Mark in this calendar when your bees took their last flight. Knowing the dates of autumn and spring flights, you can calculate how long your bees wintered.

Plant Trees in October
When planning to landscape the homestead with trees, do not forget the chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum). It is a decorative, tall tree with various forms. Beekeepers especially value its spherical form, Umbraculifera, whose broad crown descends to the ground and provides good shelter for hives. There are red-flowered and yellow-flowered chestnuts.
Chestnuts grow faster than lindens and start blooming earlier. They bloom in the second half of May and flower for 18 days. Bees collect orange-colored pollen from chestnut flowers. One chestnut flower contains up to 1.7 mg of nectar, and bees can collect up to 120 kg of honey per hectare of chestnuts.