How often to check your hive during the flow

[bwallace23350]

We are fixing to be right in the middle of our biggest flow. Right now I have tons of wild blackberries in bloom and other stuff. The clover is starting to pop up. I have a decent amount of capped honey already but how often do I need to check to make sure they are not running out of room?

[iddee]

Check by hefting the back of the hive 6 times a day if you want. No disruption there. Check by opening, only when thought to be full from the weight of hefting.

[Acebird]

What are you going to check it for?  In the middle of a flow the honey might not be capped.  Or are you concerned about adding boxes?

[Spur9]

I check every 3 or 4 days

[bwallace23350]

To make sure that the hives are not filling up really. I just checked and I will check again in two weeks. THe middle frames were filling out very nice while the outer frames were not quite there.

[Acebird]

Being in SHB territory the less you crack them open the better.
Do as Iddee says but go one step further.  After you heft the hive use a scale so you can equate the feel to what a full box should weigh.  It won't take long before you can get rid of the scale.

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

Mr. Wallace, good question.  Iddee and ace have provided good answers.  I differ though, not saying I am correct but I am more in line with spur.  I am planning on weekly inspections as the weather permits which is not often lately.

I deal with hive beetles as I inspect, killing every last one if possible.  I check for swarm cells, space, amount of brood as well as age.  I rear queens so current hive conditions are very important to me.  Last year I had only one hive swarm ( that I am aware of) out of 18.  Hive beetles in my area are more of a threat than varroa but both are so noted with inspections.  I seldom see varroa but I can see the damage precipitated by such.

I don?t think there is a precise answer to your question, due to so many variables, knowledge of beekeeper(s) and so on.  Inspections can due more harm than good to the untrained eye, so easy to injure a queen and to my experience a queen injury is permanent.  Incorrectly conducted inspections can cause sliming by beetles, absconding by bees, robbing, the list goes on and on.  Ace and Iddee are very aware of what I am saying so consider.  Apparently Spur does inspections correctly and so conducts routinely similarly to yours truly.

Since the 1960(s) through the years, I have tried no inspections to weekly inspections.  I have had best success with weekly.
Blessings
Blessings

[sc-bee]

Not been at it but 13 years but I was always told a flow inspection every 7 days before that swarm cell is capped. Of course unless you can tell the brood nest is expanding and not back-filling and don't need opening without breaking in down. Or at least tilting the boxes and looking for cells....

[iddee]

Bwallace, when I lived in Ms., I could extract a 10 frame deep, place it back on the same hive, and do it again in 10 days. You are going to wait 2 weeks?? In that time, they can fill a deep and a medium, swarm,and raise a new queen if they started 2 days ago.

[bwallace23350]

Well perhaps I should check Monday or Tuesday then. My heavy flow is just now starting. It will continue till the Chinese tallow Trees are over. Right now they have probably over an acre of blackberries to work, some clover, and stuff I just don't know about. Soon the pasture is going to break out in heavy clover, probably by mid next week.

[iddee]

Again, weight is the best indicator. Swarming is determined by amount ofspace available for laying. If the hive has empty spaces in the brood nest, plus the storage area, swarming is reduced to a mini9mum. If EITHER runs out of space, they are gone.

[bwallace23350]

Thanks for all the information. Just looking at the weather though it will be late next week before we have another good day besides today.

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

An acre of blackberries????!!!!!  now don?t you make a blackberry cobbler and post a pic on Beemaster.  I?ll be tortured, tormented I tell ya.  Don?t do it to me, that would bee misbeehaving.  Ok do I get the dumb joke award for that one? Anyone??!  Do I???

[bwallace23350]

They are just wild. That acre of blackberries is not all on myland but on land that the bees can access. But if I said I had half an acre of wild black berries on our land that would be near the truth.

[Acebird]

An acre of blackberries????!!!!!

We have not planted blackberries only raspberries.  However we have trans planted a lot of blackberries along the fence as a deterrent for criminals cutting the chain link.

[Eric Bosworth]

It's nice to here that somebody has bees flying... It's still snowing here.

[bwallace23350]

An acre of blackberries????!!!!!

We have not planted blackberries only raspberries.  However we have trans planted a lot of blackberries along the fence as a deterrent for criminals cutting the chain link.

Does it work?

[Acebird]

It sure does.  Even a commercial grade page fence is no match for a criminal.  They will snip right through the fence and just walk right in.  However they are easily deterred.  We use to clear about 6 ft on both sides of the fence and that just gave them access.  About 10 years ago we stopped doing that and transplanted blackberries on the inside of the fence.  Now it is not so easily to get to the fence and if they cut it they still have to crawl through about 4 feet of blackberries.  And anything they might take has to go through also.  It hasn't happened yet.

[moebees]

Black raspberries would probably be even better. They will rip you to shreds.

[Acebird]

When the canes get up 6 ft high and all intertwined you need a bobcat with a brush hog to get though them alive.