How often do you look deep into the hives?

[Davepeg]

We have 6 hives that appear to be doing well.  When we go into the hive, we usually only check the honey shallow or the med box below.  We hardly ever go into the original deep box.  We feel we should just let them be if all appears to be ok.

I hardly see a queen, don't really bother to look for her as if I see honey and brood, I figure all is right in the hive.  We keep bees just because we like to do it.  Only pull honey for family and friends when needed and the girls have enough.

How often do you go deep into the hive?  And why?

[John Schwartz]

We have 6 hives that appear to be doing well.  When we go into the hive, we usually only check the honey shallow or the med box below.  We hardly ever go into the original deep box.  We feel we should just let them be if all appears to be ok.

I hardly see a queen, don't really bother to look for her as if I see honey and brood, I figure all is right in the hive.  We keep bees just because we like to do it.  Only pull honey for family and friends when needed and the girls have enough.

How often do you go deep into the hive?  And why?

Some reasons that would cause me to check the bottom brood chamber would be:
* Looking for disease or pest symptoms on a regular basis
* Looking for queen and/or fresh eggs

[Natalie]

I started a thread on this a couple of weeks ago and it seems as long as things look right in the hive its only necessary to go into the bottom boxes a few times during the season.
For my strongest hives I checked the lower boxes at the beginning of the season, and then a month or so later after all their frames had been built out and since everything looked fine in the upper boxes I just let them be but I will check them all before they go into the winter.
For weaker hives I check them more often to keep tabs on their comb building and to make sure pests are not an issue.
I prefer not to mess them up too much with my interference.

[MustbeeNuts]

I do a deep dive at least monthly during the season, more concerned about swarm prevention. but thats about the most I deep inspect.