Populating your HIIVE

Over the past couple of months, we’ve looked at varroa management and how to choose the most productive locations for your HIIVEs and wider apiary development. In April’s Farmers Guide, we explored how honeycomb harvesting can become a meaningful diversification stream—particularly for those with a farm shop or a local retail partner. While it’s true that you won’t see a return in year one, now is exactly the right moment to set the foundations for that future income.

So, you’ve taken the plunge: you’ve invested in a few HIIVEs, assembled them, and installed them in a warm south‑east aspect with good shelter, abundant forage from spring through autumn, and a reliable water source. In other words, you’ve created the ideal microclimate for a thriving colony.

What happens next?

Across the UK, colonies are currently deciding whether to stay put or strike out for new accommodation. Queens are laying heavily, scout bees are locating early pollen and nectar flows, and—believe it or not—many colonies are already sizing up potential new homes. You’ll see play cups appearing first (essentially “practice” queen cups), followed by true queen cells. Once those are built, the colony begins producing royal jelly to raise new queens. It’s the colony’s own selection process for succession.

So how do you populate your HIIVE? Broadly, you have two routes:
1. Allow nature to do the work (with a little encouragement)
2. Step in and populate the HIIVE manually

Let’s focus on the natural method, because it’s the most aligned with the HIIVE’s design philosophy and often the most successful for long‑term colony resilience.

Attracting a swarm is remarkably straightforward. A light spray of lemongrass oil and bee‑attractant pheromone inside the HIIVE cavity and around the entrance mimics the scent profile of a desirable nest site. Reapply every 7–10 days until a colony arrives. When you purchase three or more HIIVEs, BIOM provides the attractant tools you need to draw in scout bees. Once scouts approve the site, they return to their parent colony and perform the famous waggle dance—effectively advertising your HIIVE as prime real estate.

From the bees’ perspective, the cavity smells right, feels right, and offers everything they need: warmth, dryness, space, and natural scaffolding for comb building.

Your investment only begins to take shape once a colony has moved in. Swarm season in most of the UK runs from April through June, and the earlier your HIIVE is populated, the more daylight hours the bees have to build comb, raise brood, and establish themselves.

2026 is your establishment year. The colony’s priority will be building enough honeycomb to support brood rearing and to lay down sufficient stores for winter.
2027 is your first potential harvest year. Yields will vary depending on your local forage—OSR, clover leys, hedgerow species, wildflower margins, and orchard crops all influence outcomes.
2028 is where your ROI becomes tangible. Once the colony is mature and comb infrastructure is complete, honeycomb production becomes far more consistent.

As with all farming enterprises, weather plays a decisive role. But unlike many other diversification ventures, honeybees thrive when given the freedom to operate on their own biological rhythms. The less you interfere, the more robust and productive the colony becomes.