Newbee Solo Hive Inspection

[gwalker314]

Hey All,
I made my 1st solo hive inspection today. I got a deep 10 frame hive this week from a local bee club member who has quite a few years as a commercial & hobby beek. He had the hive already established and 8 of the 10 frames were already drawn out and the queen was laying.
I had a medium 10 frame super that I added today for more brood. I have been reading the forums every waking hour learning allot from all you guys. I would like to tell you what I saw today and see if anyone has any comments or advice.
I suited up with a Tyvek painters suit, soft leather gloves, black loose nylon veil, smoker and hive tool. As I reached about 5' from the hive several guard bees made eye to eye contact with me. I noticed a lot of traffic coming and going at the entrance and also about 20 bees below the entrance flying in circles? I smoked a few puffs at the entrance and lifted the top, smoked a few more puffs. I saw a couple of what I think was burr comb on the inside of the top cover as several bees appeared to be working it like it was the comb. As this was my 1st experience at this I moved very slowly in everything I did. I gently pryed the inner cover loose and puffed a little smoke under the cover.
I saw lots of bees covering the top of all the frames. I slowly loosened the center frame and pulled it out to inspect the frame. About 5 or 6 bees got upset and kept slamming into my veil. I kept calm and began looking at the frame up close. There was a nice oval shaped brood pattern with very few empty cells so I couldn't see any eggs, but there was cells with pollen and some with honey. I pulled 2 more frames and they all were just covered with bees. I had a magnifying glass with me to see if I could see any eggs but there were so many bees I couldn't tell. I did see several cells with what appeared to be white larvae in them?
The beek I got the hive from said I should get another brood box on there by the end of the week so I added the medium box for brood.  Should I have inspected all the frames? I did not see the queen but I was moving so slowly I hated to keep them disturbed for a long time. What are some of the main things I should look for? I did not see any swarm cells on the frames I checked. 
Sorry for the long post. I am just trying to see if I'm on the right track.  It was a beautiful sunny day with the temp around 75 degrees F.

[Brian D. Bray]

An old timer like me only needs to inspect his hive 3-4 times a year but since I am mentoring some people I often use my hives to demonstrate.  As a newbee inspect as often as once a week.  You will learn a lot about how a hive progresses by frequent inspections.  As you get more experienced you can cut down on the number of visits but right now it is much more important for you to learn what's happening, asking questions, getting answers, and combining all that with what you  see.

Get an old chair and set it up about 15-20 feet from the hives.  Mine is in the flight path so I get bees landing on me all the time.  It is nice to set and relax watching the bees and learning a lot about their behavior as they come and go.  I can set there for hours, the buzz often puts me to sleep but while awake I often see bees from other yards trying to figure a way past the guard bees to rob it.

[iddee]

There are two things I can see from your post.

1...Approach the hive from the side or rear, not the front. It will stop some of the head butting.

2...Remove an outer frame first, then loosen the next frame and move it sideways a bit before lifting. Removing an inner frame first can roll and kill your queen.

Your hive seems to be queen right and strong. If the hive body isn't stapled or nailed to the bottom board, you can tilt it to the front or rear and look for swarm cells on all frame bottoms at once without pulling any frames.

Frequent inspections, 'weekly, as Brian said' will not only help you to learn about them, but will also help you to learn to relax and enjoy the time spent in the hive. Continue going slow and soon you will find that you aren't so fearful anymore and your speed will increase with each inspection.

[Carl F]

I will suggest a few things beyond your inspection technique.

If you have not already done it, have your mentor friend that you got the hive from show you all of the stages of brood.  You should be able to make out eggs in the bottom of the cells if you stand with your back to the sun and let it shine over your shoulder into the bottom of the cells.  The eggs are quite small but visible to the naked eye.  They look like a very small grain of rice.  THe larvae will be a white crescent of varrying sizes depending on its age.  Perhaps you already know but you should be sure you can identify eggs and very young larvae.  Even if you don't see the queen you can be pretty sure she is present and busy if you see eggs.  They will not be more than two or three days old.

Make sure you have a way and know how to check for mite load (sticky board/drop count, powdered sugar roll, monitoring drone brood, etc.).  Also spend some time learning about and deciding for yourself what your methods and limits will be for preventing and dealing with mites.  Some beeks do no treatments, some keep to "soft" treatments, some may even treat with miticides as prevention without knowing if they have a high load.  There are smart, experienced, passionate people on all sides of that issue so spend time reading/listening to some of them and make a decision for yourself.

What you experience from the bees at your hive will change based on the season (nectar flow), mite load, and queen health.  In my first year (last year) the bees were very gentle and barely noticed my clumsy invasions in the early summer.  During the dearth (starts in early or mid-July here) they got kind of testy.  With a growing mite load and a failing queen (didn't realize either until it was too late) they were quite nasty.

Above all, enjoy working with and learning about these fascinating creatures!  It's easy to put yourself through anxiety over what you don't know and sometimes reading the forums only helps to underscore how little we know.  I feel better when I remind myself that the bees have been doing this for a long, long, long time and I am just here to provide some logistical support.

Best of luck!
Carl