Growing the Apiary: The 2026 Season to Date
The 2026 beekeeping season is beginning to wind down here in Newbury, Vermont, but our
work for the year is not finished. This has been a busy year at the apiary. We expanded our number of colonies, introduced new genetics, tried new equipment and management approaches, followed the nectar flow more closely, harvested honey throughout the summer, worked through swarms and new queens, participated in monthly inspections and sampling, monitored colony health, and learned along the way. With fall arriving, this feels like a good time to share what we have been doing throughout the year and what comes next.
Starting the Year
Our work started well before the first major nectar flow. Coming out of winter, our attention was on colony health, food stores, and building populations for spring. As temperatures warmed, we provided supplemental feed when needed and watched for the first signs of brood expansion and spring forage.
Expansion was one of our goals for 2026.
We added several colonies and introduced different genetics into the apiary during the spring and summer. This included Russian, Buckfast, and Golden West genetics, along with VHS queens from Troy Hall. Adding different genetics gives us an opportunity to observe differences in brood production, temperament, productivity, swarm tendencies, mite resistance, and winter performance under the same general conditions in our Newbury apiary.
We also added four Primal Hives this year. The Primal Hives have been one of our new projects for 2026. We spent this season building those colonies and learning more about the system. We are especially interested in seeing how their internal environment compares with the Langstroth colonies we have managed using condensing-hive principles.
Building Colonies and Drawing Comb
A lot of our spring and early summer work centered on building strong colonies. New colonies needed to establish brood nests, draw foundation, build populations, and store food. We fed colonies when conditions called for supplemental resources and used nutritional supplements throughout the season. Some colonies developed faster than others. Even when colonies sit only a short distance apart, each develops differently. Our goal was to work with what each colony was showing us rather than expecting every hive to follow the same schedule.
Swarm Season
We also experienced swarming this year. Two colonies swarmed during the season. Afterward, we allowed them to produce new queens and followed their progress closely. Both colonies successfully requeened. By our July inspection, we saw heavy brood patterns and plenty of eggs. Watching those colonies recover was one of the more interesting parts of our season. A swarm changes a colony quickly, and following the rebuilding process gave us another opportunity to learn.
Following the Nectar
We paid closer attention to nectar availability this year through our BroodMinder hive
scales. Instead of relying only on what we saw blooming, we watched the colonies' weight change throughout the season. Our scale data showed the spring flow beginning around May 16. Hive gains increased around June 8, followed by a major summer flow beginning around June 24. Late June through approximately July 13 produced some of our strongest gains. The colonies then moved into the summer slowdown during late July and early August. By August 8 through 12, our scales began showing another transition as the fall flow started. Goldenrod became increasingly visible around the apiary, along with asters and other late-season forage. The scale data has become an important part of how we manage our bees. We now have a better record of when our local flows started, strengthened, slowed, and returned. Those records will help guide our management decisions in future seasons.
Harvesting Our Honey
June 18 marked our first honey extraction of 2026. From there, we continued harvesting throughout the summer as individual colonies had surplus honey available. Our bees gather from the mix of flowers growing around Newbury and the Connecticut River Valley. The available forage changes throughout the season, so each harvest reflects what was blooming when the bees collected the nectar. We bottle our Vermont wildflower honey in small batches. Our honey is raw and unfiltered. We also produced comb honey this year. With comb honey, the honey stays where the bees placed it, sealed inside the wax cells they built. Seeing the finished jars and comb honey after months of managing the colonies is one of our favorite parts of the year.
Monthly Inspections and Bee Health Monitoring
One of the more interesting parts of our 2026 season has taken place behind the scenes. Throughout the season, our apiary has participated in monthly inspections with Vermont State Bee Inspector Brooke. These visits have given us another way to follow the health of our colonies throughout the year. As part of the monthly work, pollen and adult bee samples have been collected for testing. Mite washes have also helped us monitor Varroa levels within the colonies. During our July inspection, our mite washes returned zero mites. We also had an opportunity to look closely at the two colonies that had swarmed earlier in the season. Both had successfully requeened and were showing heavy brood production and plenty of eggs. Ada has also had opportunities to participate in the inspections and
sampling process. The testing gives us information beyond what we see during a normal hive inspection. Looking at brood patterns, food stores, queen performance, and colony population tells us a great deal about a hive. The pollen and bee samples provide another source of information about what is happening within the colonies. We plan to continue learning from the results as they become available.
Managing Varroa
A zero-mite wash does not mean our Varroa work stops. We continued monitoring and managing mites as the season progressed. Late summer and fall are especially important periods for Varroa management. The colonies are transitioning away from their large summer populations and toward raising the bees that will carry them through the Vermont winter. Our goal is to send those winter bees into the cold months with the healthiest colonies we are able to provide.
Where We Are Now
We are now reaching the point where our priorities change. Honey production is winding down. Our focus is moving toward the bees that will remain in the colonies through winter. Over the coming weeks, we will evaluate colony strength and food stores, finish our Varroa management, balance resources where needed, remove equipment that will not remain on the colonies, and prepare each hive for cold weather. We will also begin setting up our winter configurations. Our Langstroth colonies will once again use the condensing-hive approach we have been developing in our apiary. The four Primal Hives will give us another system to observe through a Vermont winter. BroodMinder sensors and hive scales will stay at work as well. Once the hives are closed for winter, those tools give us a way to follow weight, temperature, and humidity without opening the colonies.
Still More Work Ahead
There is still plenty to do before we call the 2026 beekeeping season complete. The honey harvest might be nearing its end, but preparing bees for winter is one of the most important parts of our year. Once every colony is treated, fed as needed, configured for winter, insulated, and put away for the cold months, we will take a closer look at the entire season. At that point, we will share our full 2026 seasonal review. We will look at our colony successes and losses, different genetics, monthly inspection and testing results, nectar-flow data, honey production, winter preparations, lessons from the season, and plans for 2027. For now, we're focused on finishing the job we started this spring and getting our bees ready for another Vermont winter.
Ada’s Sweet Bees
Pollination with Purpose, Honey with Heart.
Comments