I was wondering how often you pull all the frames out of the hive? I am in the very slow process of replacing my hot hove with a gentle queen. It has only been two weeks. After the gentle queen does her stuff how often should I pull all the frames to check them?
For the bee's sake about once in the spring, once in the middle of the swarm build up (here that would be about mid may) and once in the fall and again if things aren't looking right.
For your sake as a beginner, you need to open it much more often so you can learn and see how they build up and cut back and get ready for winter.