very first hive inspection, advice & answers

[scoobee]

My Son and I did our very first hive inspection today. We wore our bee suits, gloves and used smoke. We both might not of known what we were doing but by the grace of God we sure looked like we did. Took the top and inner cover off then top feeder and wow were there a lot of bees. I got the bees 5 days ago, I took my super to my supplier and she placed 5 full frames of bees along with a marked queen in the hive with 5 new unpulled frames. Today, 4 of the new frames were pretty much untouched the 5Th was starting to get pulled. The frames that she put in had a lot of bees and larvae along with honey cells. On my inspection it loooked like the pulled frames were touching each other. Didn't seem like the bees would be able to crawl between them. We saw a lot of capped and uncapped pollen cells along with honey. Now I know from my reading that I'm not ready for another super till at least eight frames are pulled.
              I know this is a question that's probably been asked since the beginning of time or at least this forum, How long should a good inspection take?
              With my nervousness I probably should have taken a little more time looking, I did take the time looking for the queen and found her or rather my son did. She looked good, not in distress. I didn't look for eggs figuring that if you see eggs than you can figure you had a queen in there at least 2 days ago, so if I see the queen then I have eggs.
               Being that the pulled frames look to be so thick and touching each other should I take a frame out and go from a ten frame to a nine frame?
               I am  honestly in love with these awesome creatures, they were so calm, so calm in fact that they kept interupting my inspection by climbing  on my glove to eat honey off it, the nerve.


Thanks in advance
   

[beek4018]

I'm a newbie here as well, but I'd probably go ahead and look for eggs at least for the first month or two.  The larva is a good sign, but you don't know exactly when those eggs ( the ones that have now developed into larva) were laid, and by which queen.  It may or may not have been your queen since you didn't release the queen into the super. 

So I'd want to confirm that she's actually laying in my hive by spotting eggs, at least initially.  Spotting eggs also confirms that she's still being productive, which you probably can't tell simply by looking at her.   

Also, looking for eggs even if you find the queen provides you with good practice at recognizing eggs in all situations. 

They can be hard to spot, so the more you do it the better you get at it.

Not sure on the time thing.  Maybe 15 mins. if I have to go all the way through.  Sometimes more, sometimes less.

[Kathyp]

do not do 9 frames in a brood box.  you will have a mess.  push the 10 frames tightly together with any extra space to the outside.  the bees will leave themselves enough space to move. 

from time to time they will attach comb between frames.  this does not mean the need more space.  they  just got creative :-).  cut through this comb with a sharp knife and let them fix it.

[sarafina]

The first few inspections are always exciting and nerve-wracking but it sounds like you did great!

The frames should have bars at the top that are slightly wider than the sides of the frames and these should be touching.  Like Kathy said - push them together and leave the extra space at the ends of the boxes.  Don't pull a frame - you should have 10 frames.  The space between the frames looks small but the bees can get through - it is called "bee space" and is small enough so they don't normally try to build comb between them.

I can never see the eggs and don't look for them - I looked for the white hatched larvae curled up in the bottom of the cell.  The eggs hatch in 3 1/2 days so if you have open larvae your queen was laying 4 days ago.

I have no idea how long I am out there at a time - depends on what I am doing.  I inspected both hives today and it probably took me 45 minutes from the time I put my suit on, lit my smoker, peeked at the girls and put everything up.  I took my camera out and took pics this time - kinda tricky holding a frame of bees with one hand and the camera in the other and still click the shutter.  :-D

[Paynesgrey]

I was wondering how long it should take too. We are also new. It is taking us about 20 minutes, going thru 1 & 1/2 brood boxes (top boxes not full yet) frame by frame because we do not want to miss a queen cell. We do not want to lose half the bees in a hive to a swarm. That and we have not quite mastered keeping the smokers going yet. :) 

[tillie]

An inspection should be considered finished when you have answered whatever question was behind the inspection.  

• If you wanted to see if the bees need a new super, then if they have built out 8 of 10 frames or 6 of 8 in an 8 frame box, then add the new super, close up the hive and you are done
• If you wanted to see if the queen is active, then look in the brood box until you see eggs or very young larvae.  Once you've found a frame that has eggs/brood on it, close up the box and you are done
• If you want to see the difference between a worker bee and a drone, explore the frames until you see a drone and really study him.  Then close up the hive

etc. etc.

Most inspections take around 20 minutes or so - here are two blog posts I did on how to do a hive inspection:

http://beekeeperlinda.blogspot.com/2010/01/how-to-do-basic-hive-inspection.html

http://beekeeperlinda.blogspot.com/2008/04/whats-involved-in-hive-inspection.html

Hope that helps - there are lots of slideshows on my blog about basic inspections we've done at the Blue Heron as well with tons of pictures.

Linda T in the N Georgia mountains for the weekend