Honey Bee Suite » hive inspection

Summer in the city: urban hive inspections

Rusty — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 15:21:17 +0000

Note: Today’s post was written by Karen Peteros, a beekeeper and beekeeping instructor in San Francisco. Karen took issue with my post, “Is too much hive inspection a bad thing?” and wrote a dissenting opinion. Her arguments are both articulate and valid. I thought it would be useful, especially for new beekeepers in urban and suburban areas, to read her opinion.

Thanks, Karen, for your contribution to Honey Bee Suite.

Hi Rusty:

I very much enjoy your blog posts but I do feel that your latest, “Is too much hive inspection a bad thing?” is unique to (1) your beekeeping location which I assume is somewhat rural given your reference to the landscape where you keep bees, your swarm catchers posted on various trees etc; and (2) the fact that you have a few years of beekeeping experience in your location under your belt.

A different perspective — If you were beekeeping in a densely populated suburban area or in an urban environment, you would need to significantly modify your practices or you may find you have neighbor, community and legal problems on your hands. Regular and thorough inspections, particularly for swarm control, is very important. Losing more than 50% of your bees to swarming is bad enough, but reliable queen mating in a suburban/urban environment can be lacking. This can result in a queenless colony that becomes pissy (e.g., hot). Moreover, rotted trees are not generally allowed to persist in densely populated areas, even in urban parks, due to public safety and liability concerns. Therefore, the nearest cavity a swarm is likely to find would be in someone’s wall or attic via a small area of dry rot. Not surprisingly, colony removal is an unwelcome cost to homeowners.

Accordingly, we urban beekeepers must balance the responsibilities of being good stewards to our bees, but also being good neighbors. I regularly teach classes for beginning beekeepers and, after having taught such classes and mentored beginners for a number of years now, I recommend that they get into the hive not less than every other week after the first 3 weeks of installing a package or a swarm, through September. As a point of reference for San Francisco, our primary swarm season is March-June, but swarming can begin as early as mid-February depending on the weather and can continue into September (primarily, congestion swarming). I tend to recommend this frequency of inspections for at least the first year of beekeeping. But I also recommend this frequency of inspections through the second year because the biological goal of a colony following the year of establishment has shifted from survival to reproduction. Otherwise, newer beekeepers simply do not gain enough experience in their first couple of years of beekeeping to understand the significance of what they are seeing, on the frames and within the hive as a whole, as it changes through the seasons and the life cycle of the colony. Unless newer beekeepers can gain this understanding through hands-on and observational experience, they are less likely to be able to manage for the success of the colony and their beekeeping experience.

I also keep bees in Ashland, Oregon on a rural property, and my practices there are much more akin to yours. However, in my (and other people’s) San Francisco backyards where I also keep bees, my intrusions into the hive are much more frequent and regular out of the necessity to balance the somewhat competing responsibilities to my bees and immediate and nearby neighbors.

Karen Peteros
San Francisco CA

Is too much hive inspection a bad thing?

Rusty — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 15:36:27 +0000

Hive inspection is a hot topic among beekeepers. I can certainly understand new beekeepers wanting to open their hives and peruse the colony frame-by-frame. It is the very best way to learn about the social structure of a colony, the duties of individual bees, and the physical layout of pollen, honey, and brood.

Nevertheless, I believe it is easy to over inspect. I believe the integrity of the colony should not be compromised any more than necessary. An inspection is nothing less than a home invasion and before you do it, you should have a good reason for doing so.

In the United States, hives are required to have removable frames so that colonies can be inspected for disease. Although it is a good idea, it doesn’t mean that hives should be constantly violated. It means that hives can be inspected periodically or when things go awry.

So how often should hives be inspected? I can’t answer that. Speaking for myself, I seldom inspect frame-by-frame.

Most of the time you can tell everything you need know by standing near your hive and watching. You know a lot by how the colony behaves, the way it sounds, the way it smells, and the number and type of bees that come and go. You can tell even more by watching what they bring in, observing what they haul out, and assessing their temperament. If you walk by your hive on a summer’s evening and it purrs like an insulated engine room, smells like heaven, and the landing board is clean, why on earth would you open it up and disturb everything? It doesn’t make sense.

On the other hand, if the number of bees is decreasing, you see dead bees or pupae unattended on the landing board, you detect an odd odor, or your bees are unseasonably temperamental, open the hive. If you see robbers, predators, or leaking honey, open the hive. If you see lethargic, aimless, or deformed bees, open it up.

Again, speaking for myself, I inspect all my hives in late winter. Later, I open those I’ve decided to manipulate in some way like reversing, splitting, or re-queening. Although I open hives in spring and summer to add supers or remove them, I don’t actually inspect frame-by-frame unless I detect something amiss. If all goes well, I don’t inspect again until fall when I assess honey stores and queen activity just before winter. At that time, I may redistribute honey frames, combine colonies, add feed, or make other winter adjustments. In any case, I never inspect on a calendar schedule. That is, I never inspect just because two weeks has passed, or three. That’s crazy.

That said, I walk by my hives nearly every single day, both summer and winter. In the past, when I had out-yards, I checked on those once a week. There is always something to be learned about the inside of a hive by a quick check of the outside. But every time you start pulling out frames, you run the risk of killing the queen. You agitate the bees. You break propolis seals. You chill the brood. You jar the larvae or dry them. If you damage honey cells, both robbers and predators may pick up the odor and come running.

A lot of routine maintenance can be performed on a hive without pulling out all the frames. You can add feed, pollen patties, or mite treatments by just lifting the lid. You can look for swarm cells by tipping up a brood box and inspecting the bottom. You can assess honey stores by lifting the back end of a box and estimating the weight. You can check for mites on a sticky board. And if the hive is so full of bees you can’t see a blame thing, if it boils over when you lift the lid and the sky goes dark ’cause sunlight can’t get through the cloud of bees, then is it really necessary to check your brood pattern? Get real.

I realize it takes time to develop a feel for what is going on inside a hive. But I urge new beekeepers to strive for that. Compare what you see on the outside to what you find on the inside until you develop an intuition. It will happen sooner than you think. And in any case, use common sense. No animal wants its home torn apart for no good reason. So before you do it, have a clear idea of what your good reason is.

Rusty

How to do a simple brood nest inspection

Rusty — Tue, 17 May 2011 15:57:06 +0000

Your very first hive inspection can be scary. Here are a few tips to make easier.

To begin:

Know why you are opening the hive before you do it. It helps to know exactly what you are looking for.

Pick a warm and sunny day when most of the foragers are out in the field. The hive will be easier to inspect when it is less populated.

Stand behind the hive so you are not blocking the entrance.

Calm the bees by using smoke or a gentle spray of sugar syrup, whichever is your preference.

If you are using smoke, puff some into the entrance and wait a few moments for the bees to begin eating honey.

Remove the lid and place it upside down on the ground to use as a place to stack brood boxes and/or supers.

You may puff smoke or spray sugar syrup under the inner cover if you wish. Wait a few more moments.

Remove the inner cover.

If you have honey supers or more than one brood box, stack everything on the inverted lid except the bottom brood box.

Moving the frames:

Lift out one of the two end frames, inspect it, and then set it aside in a safe place.

One-by-one, slide a frame into the empty spot, lift it up and inspect both sides, then replace it in the same orientation as before. Sliding each frame away from the others before lifting reduces the chance of rolling the queen between two frames.

Hold the frame over the brood box so if the queen falls off, she will fall back in the box.

Each time you replace a frame, slide it toward the side where you removed the first frame. By the end of your inspection the empty slot will be on the other side of the box.

When you are finished, slide the frames back to their original position and replace the first frame.

If you have a second brood box to inspect, place it on top of the first and then do your inspection.

What you are looking for depends on your purpose. But for a general inspection, you may be looking for:

Sealed brood in a compact pattern with few empty cells: a solid pattern of brood generally indicates a good queen.

Eggs—the presence of eggs means the queen was present within the last three days.

New white comb—a sign of a honey flow.

Supersedure cells—queen cells on the surface of the comb may indicate the queen is failing.

Swarm cells—queen cells on the perimeter of the comb may mean the colony is preparing to swarm.

Nectar or honey in the cells.

Pollen stored in an arc next to the brood nest.

The presence of drone brood.

Signs of disease.

Special notes:

If you have a top-bar hive or foundationless frames, do not hold them sideways (parallel to the ground) because the weight of the combs may cause them to break from the frame.

Keep your hive inspections as short as possible—an inspection is very disrupting of the hive. On the other hand, keep your movements slow and deliberate. Do not rush.

Jot down any notes to yourself before going into the next hive. It can be difficult to remember what you saw and where.

Rusty