The State Inspector is Coming! The State Inspector is Coming!

Two Bees · August 21, 2008, 07:54:08 PM

I've requested an inspection of my two hives. I thought is would be good to get information directly from the State's expert (since my tax money pays for it). The inspection is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.

Are there any specific questions I should be asking?

EasternShore · August 21, 2008, 08:54:51 PM

Watch them carefully...my inspector dumped my new queen on the ground! This was my first inspection so I guess kept my mouth shut...Next time I'm calling his boss.
He was very helpful on info, so I just hope next time I'm there...

I found the queen on a frame on the ground and she ran into the hive so fast I almost angry my pants laughing...

bizzybeehoney · August 21, 2008, 09:05:05 PM

I am from Randolph County, NC. I have had the state inspector out twice. They have been extremely friendly and helpful. I asked as many questions as I could think of and they were happy to answer them.

Two Bees · August 22, 2008, 12:11:30 PM

Thanks for the tips! The guy that will be doing the inspection is a member of our county association and has given a couple of presentations. I'm pretty comfortable with his knowledge.

I wasn't sure as to the role of the inspector besides checking for diseases, etc. I didn't want to ask questions that I could ask any beek or read in a book (and we all know about believing what you read!).

Michael Bush · August 22, 2008, 10:10:05 PM

I'd try to be there if you don't know him. Next time if it's the same guy and you know he's competent, I wouldn't worry so much about it. Ask him what he's looking for and get him to show you what makes him think they are healthy (or not).

Two Bees · August 25, 2008, 10:16:05 AM

Things went pretty well with the inspection of both hives. I took off from work a little early to meet with inspector as he opened the hives. At the present, my hives consist of two deeps and two mediums without a queen excluder. The bees have never really been interested in drawing the two mediums though (less than 3 frames in only one medium for each hive). Both hives were really calm during the inspections.

One hive was textbook! Good stores and plenty of eggs, larvae, capped brood and bees! This hive always has fewer bees hanging out on the front of the hives so I thought it was a smaller colony but the inspector indicated that it looked great with plenty of bees and stores (no mites or diseases either). We also found the queen!

The second hive looked really good too! This second hive had plenty of bees (house and field bees) but the laying pattern was not solid. We noted plenty of bees inside and out, some eggs, some larvae, but not a lot of capped brood. The inspector speculated that the queen may have been superceded. We looked for queen cells and only found one possibility about the size of a peanut. Not the entire peanut that you would expect, just a single peanut itself! We didn't make a goal of finding the queen in this hive but since there were some eggs, the queen was probably hiding. Again, he could not find any mites or other diseases. He mentioned that I should inspect this hive again in a couple of weeks and note the amount of capped brood.

We discussed some POTENTIAL treatments for varroa and he didn't seem that concerned in our area about tracheal mites. He recommended that I should perform a sugar roll around October 1 to see if there are any mites.

He had an interesting reaction when I mentioned to him that I would probably replace my queens next September. I don't believe that he felt that he should make a comment sooooo..........I prompted him. He said that he never replaces his queens. He just let's the bees decide when to do this and then relies on the girls raise their own queen. Just an interesting thought.

Thoughts?

Brian D. Bray · August 25, 2008, 11:14:39 PM

Quote from: Two Bees on August 25, 2008, 10:16:05 AM
We discussed some POTENTIAL treatments for varroa and he didn't seem that concerned in our area about tracheal mites. He recommended that I should perform a sugar roll around October 1 to see if there are any mites.

I would do it a little sooner as if the count is high you'd want time to do 3-4 supar shakes in before winter.

QuoteHe had an interesting reaction when I mentioned to him that I would probably replace my queens next September. I don't believe that he felt that he should make a comment sooooo..........I prompted him. He said that he never replaces his queens. He just let's the bees decide when to do this and then relies on the girls raise their own queen. Just an interesting thought.

Thoughts?

I've done that a lot. If you have at least 5-6 hives for genetic diversity to begin with you can go up to 10 years just letting you hives do natural replacement. The more natural you can get that way the more apt you hives are to develop mite tolerence and/or hygenic behavior towards the mites.
A lot of beekeepers insist that queens should be replaced every year but I've never found that to be necessary. That practice inhibits the bees natural ammune system as you're starting over on survivability every year.

I prefer as feral of hive as I can get using Langstroth equipment. Next year I'm building back to 6 hives with bees from as many different sources and should be good genetically for the foreseeble future, after that it's back to natural selection.

Two Bees · August 26, 2008, 06:49:57 PM

Thanks, Brian!

I think I will do a sugar roll next week just to get a idea as to what I am looking at. Can't really stay out of the hives for long anyway!

If we don't get some serious rain soon, the goldenrod is going to flower dry. Then, I guess I will feed a little of 1.5 to 1 to try to encourage them to draw out some foundation.