need step by step instructions

rgy · July 26, 2010, 09:18:05 AM

Newbee's this year. We have one super hive that we were able to put the second honey super on this weekend. I need some help with our inspection though. How do you do it with the honey supers on and two brood boxes? It seems that we get there take a look and things seem to be going great so we are very reluctant to start tearing into the top box. We look at each other and kinda say "looks like they are realy doing well lets not screw it up" and we don't look to see brood or eggs.

One thing we did fugure out this weekend was that we need to take an empty super to put frames in as we take it apart. Should we take the honey boxes off then the top brood box and then start looking at the first box and then put the top box back and look at those frames? Seems like it would take us an hour to do all that.

thanks for your help.

FRAMEshift · July 26, 2010, 10:33:39 AM

You have just re-discovered why people like long hives. With horizontal hives, you just look at the frames you are interested in without moving other frames or moving heavy boxes or disturbing all the bees or ... as you say .... "screwing it up". :-D

rgy · July 26, 2010, 10:37:23 AM

long hive? same as top bar?

FRAMEshift · July 26, 2010, 11:23:20 AM

Well, the top bar is the most extremely simple version of a horizontal or long hive. The main difference is that a top bar hive just has slats of wood instead of frames. My long hives hold regular frames. They just hold 33 frames instead of 10. http://www.bushfarms.com/beeshorizontalhives.htm

caticind · July 26, 2010, 12:22:03 PM

I also love my long hive. It has its cons, but not having to dismember the hive and alert every bee in order to inspect brood comb is very nice. Also, no heavy lifting - which is perfect for a stationary backyard operation. It also has some benefits over top bar hives, in that you can use frames - more regular comb spacing (if you want that), much less comb attached to the wall of the hive, can swap frames with a lang box of the same depth.

To answer the OPs question, though -

It's good that you have the instinct not to take the whole hive apart just to inspect. It's better if you can check only when you need to get particular information about what's going on inside. But when you do need to inspect the brood nest, here's how:

Take the outer cover off (I'm assuming you have a telescoping cover) and turn it upside down on the ground near the hive.

Remove the inner cover and set it aside.

Take the supers off and set them across the outer cover so they rest on the rim. Essentially you are going to restack the hive on the outer cover in reverse order to what they were on the hive. So the second honey super goes on the bottom, then the first super, then the top brood box, etc. Make sure you do this on a level spot lest the boxes fall over! Do this until you have just one box left on the bottom board.

Inspect the bottom box. Swap out frames, look for eggs and brood, etc.

Put the top box from your reverse stack back on top of the hive. Then inspect it...

And so on up until you have the hive put together again.

If you just need to see eggs to be sure you still have a queen, then don't take the hive all the way apart. Instead, stop when you get to a box with brood, find your eggs, and then close the hive up.

indypartridge · July 26, 2010, 01:06:18 PM

Keep in mind there's not a single "right way" to do what you're asking. That said, there are times you may need to do a full inspection of a hive with supers. Here's how I do it:
1) Remove top cover, place upside down next to hive.
2) Remove supers, one at a time, place them on the top cover.
3) Remove upper deep, place on top of supers.
4) Inspect lower deep.
5) Replace upper deep, inspect.
6) Replace supers.

Now in practice, for most summer inspections, I skip step 3. What I usually do is pull a frame or two from the upper deep while it's still in place, and if I see a nice brood pattern, I'm done inspecting. If I don't see any brood then I may dig down to the bottom deep to verify that the queen has been laying.

Kathyp · July 26, 2010, 01:21:17 PM

i don't bother when i have honey supers on. i check before i super and then leave them alone until i pull the supers. by then, it's time to do the pre-fall check for a queen and then i leave them alone again. depending on weather, i check again octoberish.

as for the mechanics of checking, it's like any other check. unstack and then restack. does not matter if there are 2 boxes or 5. indypartridges method is fine.

glenn c hile · July 26, 2010, 01:49:25 PM

I am with kathy on this one for sure. I do not open them until after honey is pulled (unless there is an obvious problem which can you usually pick out by watching them come and go at the entrance). Pulling a hive apart and keeping it open for very long this time of year is just asking to get robbing started. If you have hives that you just started and have 2 honey supers on, I think you can assume that they are doing just fine. As my wife reminds me from time to time, just leave them alone and stop worrying them to death. They know what they are doing.

rgy · July 26, 2010, 03:19:55 PM

thanks all. I'm going to leave them alone as they seem to be doing just fine. 3lb package first of april and second honey super on Sunday July 25. this was the hot hive I had two weeks ago and they were just as nice as could be on Sunday. Must have been the weather!!! this time it was not a cloud in thee sky and sunny as could be.

We sprayed down the new honey frames with 1:1 syrup and they were all over them as we went to put the cover on. they had the first honey super almost full! Wish my two nucs would have taken off like this package did.

sarafina · July 26, 2010, 05:45:13 PM

Quote from: rgy on July 26, 2010, 03:19:55 PM
We sprayed down the new honey frames with 1:1 syrup and they were all over them as we went to put the cover on. they had the first honey super almost full! Wish my two nucs would have taken off like this package did.

I am curious.... why did you spray your honey frames with 1:1 syrup? Doesn't that adulterate the nectar that isn't capped yet?

rgy · July 26, 2010, 10:33:16 PM

no, I sprayed the new plastic frames in the second super I put on. Read some where that it helps them accept the new plastc frame with no drawn comb.

hope I didn't screw up!! seemed to work on the first honey box. Any old beek have a problem with it???

sarafina · July 27, 2010, 06:10:40 PM

Quote from: rgy on July 26, 2010, 10:33:16 PM
no, I sprayed the new plastic frames in the second super I put on. Read some where that it helps them accept the new plastc frame with no drawn comb.

hope I didn't screw up!! seemed to work on the first honey box. Any old beek have a problem with it???

no - I misunderstood what you meant - what you did as fine.