how often

[jayj200]

how often do you all inspect your hives?

[Maggiesdad]

  This is my first year... I've got 8 going now so I can be in a hive everyday of the week! A guy that's had bees since '81 to me stay out of them, every two weeks is aplenty. But I'm eat up with it... my once sno white bee suit looks carhartt tan now.

[mikecva]

It will take 10-14 days to fill a medium super with a good flow going. I check my hives about every two weeks. I say about because sometimes there is bad weather, the boxes are not filled at the same rate( throwing my calendar off) and sometimes I just run out of energy on the day of inspection. I have developed the clock system of keeping track of which hives need inspection. This system may not be the best but it serves me well since I gave up taking notes about 15 years ago. I do visit my yards about twice a week.

The clock system: I have bricks on top of each hive. when the first inspection is completed the brick is pointed to 1 o'clock. Second inspection completed, the brick gets pointed to 2 o'clock, and so forth. If the hive is not as far along as expected (not ready for the next inspection) the brick stays in the position it was in. When a super is added the clock gets reset back the 12 o'clock.  As you can imagine, my hives have bricks in many positions but seldom past 4 o'clock except during spring buildup for new hives ( captured swarms also start at 12 o'clock.) and fall build up for winter.   
-Mike

[BeeMaster2]

my first year, I used to inspect every week. My dad jumped all over me. kept telling me to stay out of them. Now I inspect when I see a problem. I have top and bottom screen boards and dry oil trays underneath. From them and the front door step, you can get a pretty good idea of what is going on.
Jim

[Eric Bosworth]

I inspect nucs more often than hives. My reasoning is that nucs have less space and are likely to swarm quicker. I check on them about once a week. My hives I usually check every couple of weeks. I have been collecting propolis so I check the propolis traps quickly without going into the hive much.

[Michael Bush]

Every five years whether they need it or not... ;)

[Football928]

I sometimes go out and watch them everyday (I've only had them for 2 months) but when I do that I only look inside my super not much different though with all the rain I've had.

[Wombat2]

Honey Supers - every one to two weeks depending on the weather and the flow. Brood Box once a month. But I practice "under supering" - empty frames into the middle of a 3 high full deep hive. Full frames off the top with anything from 5-9 frames each visit. The constant empty space keeps them busy and stops overcrowding and hence likelihood of swarming.

[mtnb]

This is my first year... I've got 8 going now so I can be in a hive everyday of the week! A guy that's had bees since '81 to me stay out of them, every two weeks is aplenty. But I'm eat up with it... my once sno white bee suit looks carhartt tan now.

Nice! Mine is getting just spotty brown with only 1 hive but it smells delicious! I don't want to wash it! 

I've gone in once a week so far since I've had them mid-may, but one time I couldn't so it was 2 weeks between and they really got a lot done. I'm thinking from now on I'll just look in the upper brood for a while and leave the bottom deep alone. <shrug> 

[KeyLargoBees]

I think its a perception thing....once a week and it looks "normal"...skip and go in only every two weeks and its "OMG look how much they did....like almost double" 

I have been fighting queen problems in my main hive and have been going in weekly now that I have a new NUC and have the first hive queen right I am going to start scaling back and give them time to work...shifting from weekly to every 10 days and will eventually get to once every two weeks once I see things are progrssing as they should.

[capt44]

When I have a hive going good I only check them every month or so.
The only ones I go into more often is the ones I'm using for a cloake board setup for rearing queens.
Nucs need checked more often for they can fill a 5 frame nuc in just a few days during a honeyflow.

[Rurification]

I've been going in every three weeks this year.   Just a top box check for hives I'm confident are doing well.   Enough to see if they need another box.

For the packages/smaller hives, the 3 week thing is enough for me to see a trend and to catch weird stuff [like the 26 capped queen cells I found in one hive yesterday-see other post] before it gets to be bad stuff.   

One of the reasons it's nice having a bunch of hives is that I can plan on going in regularly, but  I'm always focused on different hives.  So I'm not bothering them too much, like I did the first year with only 2 hives.   

[Candiebears]

how often do you all inspect your hives?

I did every two weeks and then backed it up to a month... Only to find out my queens been dead for quite some time now... So ... if I can fix this problem in time, before my colony is gone.. I'm going back to every 2 weeks.

[gdog]

I do every two to three wekks and it works great! This is only to see the stages; egg, larva and capped brood. I dont look for the queen anymore why set them back a week or more. if I happen to see her then its a bonus.