Inspections

crispyking · January 16, 2008, 07:19:15 AM

Hello,

Is it absolutely necessary to inspect all of the hive ? I have just started bee-keeping this year (joining a local club and collecting a swarm from a nearby member) and much as I enjoy checking on my ladies (every week - again, is this required?) and I obviously need to check the brood box and try and spot the queen/check the brood and for eggs etc but I'm thinking that I could save a bit of time by not inspecting the upper boxes ?

Another question I have (and maybe should start another topic?) is as to whether it would be alright to take one of the full frames of honey now from the hive, rather than wait until a full harvest at the end of summer ??

Thanks

Chris
8-)

BMAC · January 16, 2008, 07:28:24 AM

Leave the honey alone until the end of summer. What happens if you take all the honey out now and you run into an unexpected dearth?

IMHO being a new beekeeper you should check on your girls atleast once a week just to be familiar with the inside of a hive.

Scadsobees · January 16, 2008, 09:04:31 AM

What is the configuration of your hives?

If you have 2 or 3 brood boxes, you probably only need to inspect those. And you don't need to inspect them every week, in fact,when you get more familiar with them, you probably won't do it but once or twice a month.

It is good at first to get familiar once a week. However, inspections are somewhat disruptive, so when you start feeling comfortable it is good to cut back.

You should be able to steal a frame or two without any problems. If you have more than one super on then you can probably take any extra supers. I usually harvest twice a year because I don't have enough supers.

Rick

bassman1977 · January 16, 2008, 10:09:07 AM

I definitely agree that going in once a week is a healthy for learning in the beginning. Once your 1st season ends, you can go in a lot less. Personally, I don't go into the brood boxes unless I see a distinctive problem in the hive (IE., little traffic going in and out). I do go in often during a flow to make sure there's enough room in the supers.

QuoteLeave the honey alone until the end of summer. What happens if you take all the honey out now and you run into an unexpected dearth?

I sort of agree with this statement. My area has a few distinct flows. Mainly spring (clover, dandilion, etc) and late summer/early fall (Goldenrod). Summer is usually dry but the bees do bring honey in during this time. I harvest twice a year. The thing is, make sure you leave honey in there for the bees. Especially in the winter. If you have supers filled with honey, I can't see any reason why not to take it out.

JP · January 16, 2008, 10:12:25 AM

Hi Chris, welcome to beekeeping! Hope you're having lots of fun learning and watching your bees. I looked at your weather and it appears your area does not get cold weather for very long, and it looks like freezing temperatures are a rarity. Yes, let us know what your set ups are, box sizes, how many, and how much honey they have now. If I had to ponder a guess though I would agree that it should not hurt to remove some honey now. In the beginning, we all want to be in our hives as much as possible, but most times less is better. Check out Michael Bush's site, www.bushfarms.com, you won't regret you visited there. To echo what M.B. says on his site, you don't always have to find the queen, main thing is that the hive has one and is queenright, which you will learn about. As long as you have worker brood, you know you have a queen, or had one very recently. It would also make it easier on you if you decided to use all medium boxes as well, and on Michael's site, he explains why. Definitely check his site out, and in case you haven't guessed its alright to ask any question on this site. We are here to help you.

Sincerely, JP

Cindi · January 16, 2008, 11:28:40 AM

Chris, welcome to our forum. You have found the right place to get all the information that your heart desires. We have members who have been keeping bees for eons of time and lots of new beekeepers too. Ask any question, it will get an answer and you will be learning all the time. Enjoy the bees, nothing more fulfilling on this earth than watching what they do, and the beautiful by products of their work that us, as humans, are privileged to have. You will have lots of experiences that will thrill you half to death (and count on a few stings now and then, hee, hee :evil: ;) :)). Anyways, welcome, ask any question, all questions are important. Have a great and wonderful day, Cindi

KONASDAD · January 16, 2008, 12:41:11 PM

Inspecting as a beginner is important. It does disturb the bees. If you have two or more hives, just aklternate the ghive you inspect each weekend . You'll get the experience, but the harm is minimized for each individual hive. One of the many reasons to have two or more hives even for a backyard hobbyist.

Moonshae · January 16, 2008, 10:12:17 PM

Quote from: KONASDAD on January 16, 2008, 12:41:11 PM
If you have two or more hives, just alternate the hive you inspect each weekend.

What a clever idea! I never thought of this. I always inspected both of my two (albeit, every other week) to compare against each other.

Kimbrell · January 16, 2008, 10:47:14 PM

Quote from: crispyking on January 16, 2008, 07:19:15 AM
Hello,

Another question I have (and maybe should start another topic?) is as to whether it would be alright to take one of the full frames of honey now from the hive, rather than wait until a full harvest at the end of summer ??

Hi Chris
Because I, too, have different nectar flows 2 or 3 times in a season, I harvest 2 or 3 times. That way I have jars of clover honey from early summer and sourwood from late summer,etc. Just don't take off more than you think they can spare.

crispyking · January 17, 2008, 04:54:48 AM

Thanks for all your replies :)

I actually only have the one hive at the moment so can't alternate inspections (but do plan to start another one next season so could do in the future) and with regards to configuration I have 3 'deep' boxes on top of one another, with a queen excluder between the top 2 - I actually took this out a week ago as they hadn't even drawn out the foundation in the top box in the 7 weeks that I had them in this configuration - I think it took them this long to fill up the bottom brood and middle box, so I replaced the queen excluder last weekend ...

I only wanted to take one frame of honey out (of the middle section) and replace it with a foundation frame - the majority of the middle box is now full of honey and pollen (and is pretty heavy!!) - as I am keen to see how their honey tastes ... although I don't have an extractor at the moment ... :?

With regards to weather, we have only really just moved here but are aware that it can get hot summers (very hot at the moment!!) and mild winters, very seldom reaching 0 degrees
8-)

Sean Kelly · January 17, 2008, 05:19:17 AM

Quote from: crispyking on January 17, 2008, 04:54:48 AM
I only wanted to take one frame of honey out (of the middle section) and replace it with a foundation frame - the majority of the middle box is now full of honey and pollen (and is pretty heavy!!) - as I am keen to see how their honey tastes ... although I don't have an extractor at the moment ... :?

I did the same thing last year, took out one frame and replaced it with a empty one. They had the empty frame drawn out and filled almost as fast as I replaced it. I took a hot knive and cut part of it into cut comb (my 2 year old loved it!!! Made a huge mess) and the rest I crushed and strained through a cheese cloth since I didn't have an extractor yet either. Ended up with 4 pint jars and some nice cut comb just out of one frame!!!
Welcome to the forum and look forward to hearing more about your adventures in beekeeping! Not to sound like a broken record, but definately check out Michael Bush's website... lots of awesome info there!

Sean Kelly

JP · January 17, 2008, 07:17:03 AM

Chris, three deeps is a lot of boxes for a first yr hive. I'm not saying they can't draw three out in one season but most times not. It is no surprise they didn't draw out the top deep. I would guess that your bottom deep has more brood than honey, so I would check and see. I would remove the top box all together and just use the two deeps. I would concentrate on using the bottom deep as your brood nest and the second one for brood and honey storage. You need to inspect the hives to see how much honey stores are in both deeps. This will determine how much honey you can take now. You don't want to take too much honey. Let us know how much is honey comb in your set up out of the twenty frames.

Hypothetically, let's just say that your bees had used the bottom deep as the brood chamber and the top two for honey storage. If they in our example filled the two top deeps completely with honey, each box would weigh approximately 90lbs, that's 90lbs each. That is a recipe for a hernia. This is why people use mediums and shallows for their honey supers. Better yet, consider using all mediums as your set up. And I personally would ditch the queen excluder. Best of luck, and let us know what's going on in there.

Sincerely, JP

LocustHoney · January 17, 2008, 09:05:29 AM

The more you "mess" with the bees the further behind it puts them when you are in a honey flow. Remember that they will have to go back and redo everything you just changed. Even if you just pulled out some frames for visuals. I was always told it would set them back about three days. This could be bad in a flow. Best thing to do is to watch your bees flying in and out of the hive as much as you can. This will allow you to get a feel for how your hive is doing without even popping the top.

Scadsobees · January 17, 2008, 09:21:50 AM

If they've got 5 or 10 frames of honey, take one, or two, they have extra. Enjoy it, there is something almost magical about that first honey from the hive!!!

Sure, it sets the hive back a little everytime you inspect, but as a beginner now is the time to see what is going on inside and be able to correlate that to what is on the outside. Check the boxes where you think that the queen might be, what is in one box is probably in all of them ie. eggs, brood, possible diseases. If you find her in the bottom, and the brood looks ok, don't go through each box, but check the box top and bottom and you can usually see what is on the frames, brood or honey. That way you can tell what is going on but also how big the broodnest is .

Most importantly...do what you are most comfortable with. Just as all of us have different opinions you will have your own style.

Rick

crispyking · January 17, 2008, 11:20:36 PM

... I replaced the queen excluder as the ladies had drawn out and started filling the top box with honey when I last looked at the hive ...
the main reason I have such a big hive is that it was a pretty big swarm to start with, they had already moved twice from a deep box that the swarm was initially collected in, I got the second deep brood box on pretty quickly after collection and they drew out the comb and started filling it pretty quickly which is why I added the third - I would have used a shallow super but didn't have one, only deep boxes - would it be ok to cut the deep box into halves to get a couple of shallow boxes ?

Brian D. Bray · January 18, 2008, 12:05:36 AM

If you must use a queen excluder you've probably just learned from experience that the bees are very reluctant to go through it to access a new super. When supering leave the excluder off until they start working it. Then, after that, lift the top box and put the new one between the excluder and the filled super. Putting a super of honey above the super helps to draw the bees into the new super. I dislike excluders because they create a real bottle neck for the bees and are so often misused and misunderstood by the beginning beekeeper.