Five first-season mistakes that cause colony failure

Your colony starts with a clean slate

Path 1: Starting from a bee package

1. Prepare the hive.

   Insert the Varroa tray, attach entrance reducers with holes facing outward, and set up your frames with foundation. Place 3 frames with foundations on one side of the follower board and 4 frames with foundations on the other, with the follower board in the middle. The bees start on the 3-frame side — this is their active nest area. The 4 frames on the other side of the follower board are in storage for when the colony grows.

   

   Next temporarily remove frames 1-3 to give yourself space to install the bees.

   
2. Prepare the bees. Give the bees a powdered sugar wash to reduce the risk of bees flying during transfer and keep them all together in the move. Turn the package on its side with the screen facing up and down. Apply 1-2 cups of powdered sugar on the screen and use a bee brush to evenly distribute as it sifts down into the bees in the package. Let them roll in the powdered sugar to spread it around for about 3-5 minutes. Do this over a tray and you might see phoretic Varroa mites knocked off as the powdered sugar encourages grooming behavior. Next remove the feeder can from the package and remove the queen. Set her aside somewhere safe.
3. Shake the bees in. Open the package and gently pour the bees directly into the space made by removing the 3 frames from the side of the nest. Rocking the package gently back and forth will help get bees stuck in walls or corners of the package. Next place the package by the hive entrance and consider placing a stick from the entrance to the package to help the bees find their way.
4. Introduce the queen. Carefully remove the wooden cork without releasing the queen and add a candy cork in its place. Install the queen cage on top of the frames, between the top bars. Check after 2-3 days to confirm the bees released her. If not, release her manually if it seems the workers are not being aggressive towards the cage.
   
5. Feed. Now the bees need to draw foundation on the frames so they will need to be fed regularly until they can find resources in the floral landscape. Close the nest and feed through the top hole. Use concentrated syrup — (4:1) 80% sugar, 20% water. Not the standard 1:1 ratio (more on why below). Place holes in the lid of the jar feeder and insert the inverted mason jar in the feeding hole on the feeder lid, then place an empty super over the jar to protect it, and replace the outer lid on top.

6. Expand gradually. Once the bees are using 75–100% of the frames on their side and brood comb is building, move the follower board over one frame to give them access to the next foundation. Keep expanding one frame at a time toward the storage side as the colony grows.When all 7 frames are built out with brood and comb, the follower board can stay in place as a movable inspection aid — keeping it in allows you to remove it first when inspecting, giving you room to shift frames around without risking putting a frame with bees and brood in the grass. Alternatively, you can remove the EPS insert from the follower board to convert it into a functional 8th frame.

7. Move the frames to the bees' side of the follower board as the colony grows

Path 2: Transferring an existing colony

Prepare the hive the same way as Path 1 (steps 1 above). The key differences when transferring from existing equipment:

1. Find and cage the queen from your old hive. Set her aside. If you're using a sealed container make sure to not leave her in for too long, it might put her at risk.
2. Shake the bees off the old brood frames directly into the Primal Bee nest. Do not transfer comb, frames, or resources. Any bees that remain on the old frames can be brushed in gently with a soft brush.
3. Release the queen immediately into the new nest. An edible cage works well here too — it raises the chances the bees stay put rather than looking for a new home.
4. Feed, expand, and return to inspect following the same steps as Path 1 (steps 5-6 above). Close the nest and feed through the top hole. Use concentrated syrup — 80% sugar, 20% water. Return after a few days to confirm the queen is present and released, and check the food situation.

What to do with the old brood frames: You have three options: 

1. Transfer them to another standard hive colony. 
2. Distance the old hive and wait 15 days for remaining larvae to emerge, then shake the newborns into the Primal Bee hive.
3. If there are eggs or larvae in the old brood frames, the emerging workers may create a new queen from a worker egg and repopulate the old equipment as a walk-away split.
4. Or, if there's risk of high Varroa or disease contamination, freeze the old frames or discard entirely.

    

→ Full step-by-step: Transferring from Langstroth → PB

Why everything gets built from scratch

Old comb is a liability. Years of brood cycles leave behind cocoon residues, accumulated pesticide traces, and pest and pathogen reservoirs that no amount of cleaning fully removes.

In a Primal Bee hive, because of the thermal efficiency, colonies can redirect energy from temperature regulation into wax production. What would take weeks of comb-drawing in a standard wooden hive happens dramatically faster when the bees aren't burning calories adjusting temperature and humidity in their hive.

Five keys to a successful first season

Your first season with a Primal Bee hive should be your best beekeeping season. Here are the five things our team sees making the biggest difference for new Primal Bee beekeepers across Europe and the US.

1. Integrated Pest Management

This is the big one. Alex Gamberoni, cofounder and CTO, calls it "99% of the time the reason why they lose their colony."

The pattern plays out the same way every time. The hive's thermal efficiency produces such strong early results that beekeepers relax. The colony looks incredible  -  nest built out in days, bees everywhere, supers going on. "They will be amazed by the initial performance," Alex says. "And then you think that everything is fine. Which is not. Because from early spring to the beginning of summer is when Varroa start growing like crazy."

By the time symptoms appear, the infestation started months ago.

The fix: test mite levels regularly and treat after the last major nectar flow. Check the Varroa tray every three weeks during winter. If you find 5–12 mites on the tray, start treatment immediately. 13 or more means your previous treatment likely wasn't effective.

2. Starting fresh with clean bees

Alex describes watching experienced beekeepers receive bee packages so infested that "the Varroa level was never going down. They received probably the most infested colony I've ever seen." Three out of four colonies were lost despite expert-level care.

Use the powdered sugar wash method described in the package installation steps above to clean your bees before introducing them. Source bees from reputable suppliers. Ask about their Varroa management. If you're buying a nucleus colony, request mite count data.

3. Appropriate feeding mixture and schedule

The standard American recommendation of 1:1 sugar-to-water syrup is too dilute. Alex is blunt about it: "We are really feeding water. And water is a problem because they don't need all that water. They need sugar." Honey is only 15–17% moisture. So when you feed that dilute, you're asking the bees to spend energy drying what they don't need in order to use what they need. All while trying to build a nest from scratch.

The added problem: excess moisture creates conditions for Nosema, a gut disease that's difficult to detect until it's already weakened the colony. 

Feed 80% sugar / 20% water (4:1 ratio by weight). If treating for Nosema, you can go to 60/40 to help bees distribute the medication.

4. Right hive configuration

Basic configuration errors  -  using the wrong super type, misusing the follower board, incorrect entrance plug orientation  -  compromise the thermal seal that makes the system work.

Follow the site preparation and hive placement guide exactly. Use Primal Bee supers  -  they are compatible with standard medium and deep Langstroth and medium Dadant frames for honey extraction. Start with the correct number of frames for your colony strength and add supers only when the colony is ready.

5. Efficient and appropriate inspections

The impulse to check on a new colony is understandable. Every time you open the hive, though, you disrupt the thermal environment the bees are working to maintain.

Check entrance activity, observe flight patterns, look at the Varroa tray. If you must open the hive, do it above 18°C (64°F) when recovery conditions are optimal. Between 5–18°C (41–64°F), stick to a quick look through the feeding hole. Below 5°C (41°F), external observation only. We covered the research on why inspections are so costly in this post.

The time-lag problem

Here's the concept that trips up even experienced beekeepers. Gianmario Riganti explains: "When you look today at a colony  -  doesn't matter if you're looking at a very good colony or a bad colony  -  you are looking at the past. With your eyes, you're looking at the operations the beekeeper was managing three months ago. Or five months, depending on location."

This is why strong-looking colonies collapse. The Varroa damage you see in October started in June. The weak spring buildup traces back to a feeding failure in December.

Gianmario's point is about operational awareness. The beekeeper who succeeds is the one who acts on what's coming, not on what's visible. Test mite levels before there are symptoms. Feed before the colony shows signs of starvation. Treat before you see deformed wings.

A beginner's story: the Swiss ambassador's first hive

Simon Geissbühler, the Swiss ambassador to Israel, installed his first Primal Bee hive at the embassy residence in August 2025. No prior beekeeping experience.

His connection to Primal Bee came through the Swiss embassy's innovation team, which had helped facilitate the startup's early development. "I very shyly asked if it was possible to have a hive in the garden of the residence," Simon says. "I was not really an expert... I didn't know if you can keep bees in the middle of the city."

With mentoring from Tomer Moldovan, Primal Bee's co-founder and CEO, Simon's colony thrived. His commitment  -  something Alex emphasizes as critical for first-season success  -  was high from the start. "It's a little too much to say that they are my babies," Simon says, "but still, I take responsibility for them and I take it very seriously."

His advice lines up with what the team sees across all successful first-year beekeepers. Commit fully. Follow the guidance. Resist the urge to assume everything is fine just because the colony looks strong.

→ Read Simon's full story

→ And for more helpful tips on using Primal Bee hives - check out our full set of usage guides