Spring in Orava does not arrive all at once. It comes in several waves, interrupted by cold weeks, and each wave has different intensity. The graph from the scale captures it exactly, including things you would otherwise overlook.
January and February: use of stores
A healthy colony in winter slowly consumes stores. In January that is usually 20 to 30 g per day, a slow even decline. If the decline speeds up, stores are disappearing faster than they should. If it stops completely, there is reason to look more closely.
Sometimes a winter graph shows a sudden one-off drop, not a gradual one. In most cases it is some intervention: removing insulation, moving frames, checking stores. The graph records it precisely even if you do not remember it later.
The first spring signal: weight stops falling
Most beekeepers miss this because the graph does not show growth. And yet it is one of the most important moments of the season.
When hazel starts flowering, in Orava typically from the beginning of March, in warm winters already from mid-February, bees start flying in the first good weather. They do not bring nectar yet, but they do bring pollen. Consumption of stores slows down and weight stops falling. The graph stagnates.
In 2025 this happened around 3 March. In 2020 already from 9 February. The graphs show that the weight stabilized. A spread of several weeks between years is common in Orava.
What it means in practice: stagnation of weight during hazel bloom is a signal that spring has started. There is no reason to open the hive. There is reason to watch the next development.
Fruit trees: the first real gain
In recent years in Orava, fruit trees have bloomed almost all at once: plum, pear and apple within a few days, typically in the second half of April. The flow is short but strong. The intensity depends on the strength of the colony.
In 2025, a cold spring, the daily gain was around 600 g per day for 4 to 5 days. In 2020, with a strong colony and a warm spring, the course was dramatically different. From 5 April to 11 April the gain was almost 47 kg in 6 days, which means on average 7 to 8 kg per day. Then stagnation and several short waves of around 7 kg each, until mid-May.
Dandelion: a strong spring nectar flow
In Orava, dandelion is one of the first major nectar flows. It starts during April, depending on temperature and sun. There is a lot of it here and in good weather it shows in the graph immediately.
In 2025, a cold spring, the gain from 29 April was around 1,600 g per day for 6 days. In warm years the intensity can be higher and the start earlier.
What the spring season in Orava can look like
A strong colony in a warm year looks completely different in the graph from an average colony in a cold spring. In 2020 the hive reached a maximum of 135 kg in mid-May, up from 60 kg at the beginning of April. That is a gain of 75 kg in 6 weeks.
That does not happen every year. But when it does, the graph captures it exactly and you know when to add a super before it is too late.
What follows from this
With the variability of weather in recent years, it is sometimes hard to tell what is happening, whether bees are bringing anything in, and how much, or whether they are only searching. With a hive scale, you know that very precisely. And you know exactly when it is time to add a super or extract honey.