How to do a hive inspection

tillie · April 14, 2008, 11:42:04 PM

I just posted on my blog about how to do a hive inspection because people have been emailing and asking me to do so. I don't know if I covered enough - if anyone has time to look and give me feedback, I'd appreciate it.

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

Linda T in Atlanta

Michael Bush · April 15, 2008, 07:27:20 AM

I like it. I especially like the part about smoking them. It seems like beginners think they are laying down suppressing fire and want to fill the whole hive with smoke. This does not calm them. :) But one puff in the door makes a world of difference.

indypartridge · April 15, 2008, 07:28:35 AM

Good job, Linda. I think it's a good general outline. I like the fact that you didn't emphasize finding the queen. It seems many new beekeepers get fixated on that. If you see eggs, larva and brood and the pattern is nice, you know she's there and doing well.

tillie · April 15, 2008, 08:39:43 AM

Wow, Michael, thank you for taking the time - I appreciate your perspective always and Indypartridge, I would have felt like a massive failure if I had to find the queen. I actually never saw a queen my entire first year!!! Then I saw both queens in the nucs I ordered for year two and only because the population was small in the nuc, allowing me to find her.

Currently one of my hives, at least, has requeened itself over the winter. I went to a talk on marking the queen at my bee club and laughed to myself the whole time, knowing that it would be amazing if I could find the queen to think about marking her!

I appreciate both of your thoughts about my hive inspection post and hope others will find the time as well.

Thanks,

Linda T in Atlanta

Keith13 · April 15, 2008, 09:46:20 AM

Linda T

I found your page in 2006 a year brfore I had bees and I always found it informative, and it was one of the reasons that finally pushed me to go ahead and finally start this year. its also how I found the Forum Pages. I think you did a good job explaining the inspection as well, and I look forward to keeping up with you blogs.

Keith

KONASDAD · April 15, 2008, 11:27:12 AM

Superb. Excellent advice.

annette · April 15, 2008, 05:05:50 PM

I can't wait for the video as I am a very visual person. Must see how it is done, and I like to see others people's techniques.

Take care and thanks always for doing such a great job with the blog. You are truly an inspiration to beekeepers.

Love
Annette

Michael Bush · April 15, 2008, 10:49:58 PM

>I went to a talk on marking the queen at my bee club and laughed to myself the whole time, knowing that it would be amazing if I could find the queen to think about marking her!

Maybe you'll appreciate this by Jay Smith:

"AN AMUSING AND YET NOT UNCOMMON EXPERIENCE OF BEGINNERS.

"The first colony of bees I got was in the ten-frame homemade hive, which I kept standing in the back yard the first year, not daring to go near it. In the fall, I went out one night and peeped under the cover, and was surprised to see that there was no honey. I supposed all a fellow had to do to get honey was get some bees and they would do the rest. Nothing succeeds like success, so they say. Not so here. Nothing makes me succeed like a failure, so I determined that next year those bees should make some honey or furnish a reasonable excuse.

"I subscribed for Gleanings and got the ABC. Then the bee fever took hold of me in earnest. I studied the book night and day. I knew it all by heart. I got the "Facts About Bees," and learned it till I could recite it as easily as a minister can quote scripture. The argument in it was good. Everything in it was all worked out. How grateful I felt that everything had been learned for me, and all I had to do was to reap the benefits! I tried hard to be unassuming but inwardly I could not help feeling proud that I knew everything about bees.

"I did all this studying in the winter; and how I longed for spring to come that I might demonstrate what I already knew! How that winter persisted in staying with us, and how reluctantly did spring show her shining face! But at last, in the latter part of March, there came a beautiful, bright warm day-just the time for clipping the queen! I had never seen a queen, and my anxiety to view her majesty was something fierce. I had an assistant cover me with mosquito bar. I put on mittens and wrapped my wrists with rags. Then I fired up the smoker and prepared to go into action.

"How I dreaded opening that hive! I felt a little pale, but my teeth were set and it was do or die. I was too big a coward to retreat while every one was watching. I must have been an aw-inspiring sight to those bees as I swooped down upon them dressed in armor, with the smoker spitting smoke and fire. I soon enveloped the hive in smoke, gave it a few jolts tore off the cover, then smoked again. Of course the bees cowed before such a vicious onslaught. Now, the books said, "Catch the queen and clip her." Clipping was the primary object of the expedition; but I saw where the books were right in saying "Catch the queen" before saying "and clip her." The only change in the wording of that I would make would be to precede that with "find the queen." I took out the frames carefully, and stood them around the hive in various places; but could not "catch the queen." I looked and looked. There were more bees in that hive than I had expected to see in ten hives. The separation of a mixture of the proverbial haystack and the needle would have been a cinch compared with the task in hand. I hunted all the afternoon, and had to give up on account of darkness. I was disgusted but not discouraged. This problem confronted me, "If I fail to find one queen in half a day, how long will it take to find several thousand queens?" (the number I expected to have in a year or two).

"Nothing succeeds like a failure, and the next day I went after them with more zeal than ever. On lifting out the third frame my eyes rested on a bee the like of which I had never seen before. It was a long bee, and she walked with a more majestic treat over the comb and did not seem to be in such a rush as the rest of the bees. She was of a dark-brown color, and how handsome she looked! Verily this must be the queen! The queen of Sheba might have looked good to Solomon; but she was not arrayed like this one.

"The next thing, "Catch the queen." I tried to make the catch, but she was not so easy. Just as I would close my fingers on her she was not there. At last I got hold of one wing but she buzzed around so that I let her drop.

"Again I got her by the wings and tried to transfer to the left hand, but her head did not stick out far enough for me to get a good hold, and she backed out and got away. Next time I shut down so hard that I was afraid I would kill her, and then let up so that she got away again. This time she dropped in the grass and I had a time to find her. The fourth time I held her between my left thumb and finger in a trembly fashion, much as a dog bites a rat, and probably the sensations to the rat and queen were similar.

"I then got the shears. I forget whether they were a large pair of tailors' shears or the kind they use for shearing sheep. In my enthusiasm I had used them in prying frames apart, and they were more or less gummed up with propolis. I slid them under the wings and shut down. The wings bend over, but would not cut. I tried again and again until I either wore the wings apart or pulled them off. But I got them off and a leg with them. A little later I thought I would "shook" the bees into a new Danzenbaker hive, and I was astonished to find that they had a new yellow queen with wings of the regulation length and a full quota of legs." --Jay Smith, Queen Rearing Simplified

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesqueenrearingsimplified.htm#c26

tillie · April 15, 2008, 10:53:40 PM

:-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D

Great way to end the day!

Thanks, Michael,

Linda T in Atlanta, LOL

Cindi · April 16, 2008, 10:46:50 AM

Michael, oh my gosh my golly. What a hoot and a hollar. This dude is one funny man. His description of his antics more than pulled on my giggle chain for sure. It kind of made me feel how I felt after I had taken the level 1 and 2 of beekeeping. I thought I knew it all......until then.......still I am on that tip of that huge iceberg!!!!

Jay Smith is an icon in the beekeeping world for sure. One day, (oh I am so good at that "one day" stuff), I am going to read more of his stuff. One day.....have the best of this wonderful day, Cindi

Understudy · April 16, 2008, 06:49:46 PM

That is an excellent tutorial.

When you have 4 or 5 bodies stacked. Bees will start to congregate on the outside of the boxes as you take them apart. Brush the bees gently so as to not squish them if possible. The queen might be there.

You do not have to go through each hive box every time you inspect.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

tillie · April 16, 2008, 11:10:36 PM

Thanks, Brendhan - those are both good points and I'll add them. Thanks for taking the time to look and give me feedback - I always appreciate your perspective.

Linda T in Atlanta

SystemShark · April 17, 2008, 02:01:39 PM

as always reading your blog and your posts really pump me up to get started. I thought I had a good handle on what I'd do with my first inspection but no doubt I will be looking this thread up and checking out your blog before I do!

I figured you didn't HAVE to check out all the frames, but I'm guessing I probobly will just for the fun - first few times anyway. Still being quick about it so as to not bug my bugs too much.

Can't wait for the video! There are never enough out there ^^

Brian D. Bray · April 17, 2008, 11:16:35 PM

As I've stated before Tillie is one of our more inspirational members and adds a ton of info to this forum.

tillie · April 18, 2008, 12:19:44 AM

Thank you, Brian. It's nice to feel so supported - I appreciate all the knowledge I've gained from your posts...two hive inspection things I learned from you that I'll never forget are

1. to take out the #3 or #2 frame every time so that putting it back kills less bees than taking a frame out first from the side of the box. The #2 or #3 frame when put back has flexible bees on each side of it instead of the solid immovable box and

2. remember where in the box you see the queen - she's likely to be on that same frame the next time you look into a box.

Linda T in Atlanta

Cindi · April 18, 2008, 10:43:59 AM

Quote from: tillie on April 18, 2008, 12:19:44 AM
Thank you, Brian. It's nice to feel so supported - I appreciate all the knowledge I've gained from your posts...two hive inspection things I learned from you that I'll never forget are

1. to take out the #3 or #2 frame every time so that putting it back kills less bees than taking a frame out first from the side of the box. The #2 or #3 frame when put back has flexible bees on each side of it instead of the solid immovable box and

2. remember where in the box you see the queen - she's likely to be on that same frame the next time you look into a box.

Linda T in Atlanta

I really liked the number 1 comment, that is a new one for me and something that I think I will be doing from now on.

#2 comment. I wonder about that though. Brian, comment please. I don't know why she would be on that same frame, maybe if the next inspection was just a few days after the one seeing the queen. If that frame has been laid full of eggs, why would she still be on it. Am I missing some really, really important part of something here?

Beautiful and most wonderful day, love our lives we all share. Cindi

Brian D. Bray · April 20, 2008, 09:44:46 AM

Quote#2 comment. I wonder about that though. Brian, comment please. I don't know why she would be on that same frame, maybe if the next inspection was just a few days after the one seeing the queen. If that frame has been laid full of eggs, why would she still be on it. Am I missing some really, really important part of something here?

My mentor taught me that a queen has a preference, or sweet spot, that she returns to whenever then hive is opened or she is idle. Yes, queens do take breaks from laying eggs. I have found this to be true to the point that I almost always find the queen on the 3rd or 4th frame in from one side or the other in the same box of the brood chamber nearly every time. I used this info as a young teenager to win queen catching contests at our regional Beekeepers picnic we used to have in Mid-Summer--the old timers were always surprized that I could go to a hive I never seen before, open it, and locate the queen, put her in a cage and resent her to the judges while others were still trying to get their smokers going--my top time was 3.5 minutes. The Picnics used to include every association from Seattle to Vancouver, B.C. The group from Langley were particularly well represented.

Cindi · April 20, 2008, 10:00:49 AM

Ooooh Brian, you were a whizz bang even as a youngster eh? That is pretty cool to hear and so glad that you can toot your horn, no one else will do that for you, we must tell our tales, and when we tell the cool little stories that make us proud, that is even the best of the best.

When I read your post, I have gone back into the cobwebs of my mind, thinking of where I have more frequently found the queen when I have opened up the hive. And....yes, seems to me that she is always on the 3rd or 4th frame in from the side, I have never found her any closer to the outside than that. I will always keep this little bit of information that you shared in the back of my mind when I am searching for her lovely. Have the best of a great and most wonderful day, Cindi