Hive Inspection

This weekend we needed to do a full inspection of the hives to see how they were performing in relation to being queen right (hive with a laying queen) and were we were up to with the honey situation.

Our concerns were with firstly the queens!!

As my daughter was down for the weekend to celebrate her Dad's birthday and was keen to see inside a hive. She decided to suit up and join me, we decided it was best to inspect just two of the hives and leave the rest to the following day.

I explained when inspecting a hive, that you must stand behind the  hive and not in front so the foraging bees can continue working without obstruction.  Next I proudly showed her how to use the smoker, giving the entrance of the hive a few puffs of smoke to let the bees know we were coming. Then you can take of the hive roof, placing it upside down on the floor near to you but without being in your way, then take off the crown board.

You need a hive tool for the next bit to help take of the honey supers as these are nearly always glued down by the bees with propolis, at this stage the bees were flying all around her and she stayed perfectly calm and in control. I was very impressed!

I pointed out the honey combs not yet capped to her and the lovely frames that were ready to harvest, she felt the weight of the frames with and without honey on them, giving her an idea of how much honey was on a frame (2-3lb).

As we got down to the brood box (were the queen lays her eggs) we had to be very careful at this point in case the queen was on any of the frames. A few puffs of smoke help send the bees down into the box. Using the hive tool again, prize the nearest frame out carefully, this is the trickiest bit! as there isn't much room to move things.

By loosening the first one gently on one side of the frame and then the other, lift it gently from the hive this frame usually just contains stores (honey), put this to one side. Now, I explained you have a little more room to gently free the next frame by sliding it towards you. and when you have inspected the frame, place it back in the hive where you took the first frame out. Inspect each frame in turn replacing it as close the previous one, this working gap moves along with you as you inspect the hive. A few puffs of smoke now and again if you need to quieten the bees down but avoid overuse of smoke.

Last time we inspected these hives they had virgin queens in them and by now they should have been out on a mating flight and started to lay eggs. I checked to see if I could see any eggs but I am afraid all I saw was pollen and honey, bad, bad news! this was the same scenario in both hives. There was nothing more to do other than replace the supers and put the hive back together and go break the news to Mel. He was of course concerned at the news but also delighted that Cathryn had assisted in her first inspection and enjoyed the experience, relaying how calm she had been and how fascinating it all was.

Hive Inspection
Apart from checking for eggs as we had done on this occasion, when inspecting hives you must also note many other things and keep accurate records of what you have seen.

• Is the queen present and is she laying
• Is there brood at all stages
• What is the behaviour of the bees like
• Is the colony developing as well as expected
• Does the queen have enough space to lay more eggs
• Is there sufficient space for the honey to be stored
• Do they have enough stored food to last until the next inspection
• Are there any queen cells
• Are there any signs of disease

 I will let you know what happened next in my next update.................

Inspection

Talk about learning as you go along! there is nothing quite like hands on experience, now dont get me wrong I am all for reading about the subject of bees but nothing quite makes sense until you actually experience it.

My bedtime reading at the moment is bees, bees and more bees and if it isnt a book, it is the Beecraft magazine which has lots of useful information for all beekeepers including the novice like me.

Normally we inspect the hives at the weekend but when I got home last night Mel was eager to have a look at the ones that were queenless, to see what was happening in them. So before dinner we donned our suits and went to the apiary on the mountain. I am happy to report that all hives were doing well except for one, the Nuc!



12 frame National Bee hive



5 frame Nuc Box



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Nuc, if you remember is the hive that we swapped from a full hive last weekend into a Nuc box as we thought it had so few bees and no queen, I can confirm this is definitely the case, I will update on this later.

The two other hives that were queen less on the last inspection have now got new virgin queens, in fact one emerged right in front of us.  It was fascinating to watch her pull her self out of the cell, a lovely black queen. In fact I couldnt quite beleive what I was seeing as Mel had taken out this particular queen cell to check if it was dead inside, and there she was in his hand!! they dont tell you to do that in a text book.

In the other hive we didn't actually spot the new queen but we are pretty sure she is there albeit a vigin (hence no eggs) as the remaining queen cells were all dead. I hadnt quite understood that the new queen or shall I say the first queen to emerge runs around the hive looking for queen cells in order to kill them. She wants to rule! so she kills each of them by inserting her sting into the cell before they hatch.

Another little snippet I learnt last night was the queen has multiple stings, unlike a worker bee who only has one and then dies when it has been used, she can sting lots of times and obviously lives to carry on.

The main hives from last year are now well and truly in a honey flow and bringing in the nectar. The 2 strongest hives  have almost filled a super it just needs to be capped so we we have put a new supers on each of them ready for them to fill them as well.

Fingers crossed for a bumper 2 months