Start of the "Season"

[MJBee]

When does the Beekeeping season start?
For me it begins on 1st October. The six weeks before have all been used to get the colonies as healthy and well fed as possible - Apiguard treatment and syrup feed to get the hive weight up to about 30kg (OMF, Commercial brood, crown board and roof).
Apart from Oxalic Acid in December/January and a possible fondant feed if the hive weight has dropped below 25kg it is then up to the bees, I have done all I can. Has anyone else got any hints or tips?
Mike

 

[RoofTops]

I have often read that the season starts when you suggest but given that there is not much to do until the spring I can never quite accept this convention. It is a bit saying the week starts on Friday evening. Which reminds me, when I lived in Kuwait their week did start on Saturday and I could never get used to driving to work on Saturday morning and realsing this was the same as Monday morning. Mind you, I had no problem knocking off on Wednesday. That came very naturally.

For me the season starts around March, or possibly earlier if they need feeding. This is the time when the colonies start to expand.

If you imagine the beekeeping year as a day it starts in the morning as the bees wake up and ends when you put them to bed. The only thing that happens in the "night" is a possible OA trickle, which is a bit like getting up in the night for a drink of water and a leak (more often the latter these days).