There are, of course, always exceptions to every rule: Some beekeepers may prefer to use one less frame in their boxes (nine instead of 10) to give themselves more room to work hives during inspections. And if you add a super but don’t put in the frames, you’ll end up with a box of cross comb attached to the roof of your hive, which is a real mess to fix. If you put fewer frames in than the box is meant to hold, the bees will build rogue comb in the empty space. Langstroth hives are built in two styles meant to hold either eight or 10 frames. Beehive hardware is designed with this in mind – everything fits just so to keep bees building only in the spaces you want. Leaving out frames or placing empty supers.īees will build comb in any empty space you give them. I check for eggs every single time I inspect a hive and encourage all of my students to do the same.ģ. Finding eggs in your hive means that your queen has been active at least three days ago – and that she’s laying, which is her one, all-important function. So what should you really keep an eye out for? Eggs. If your colony is queenless for too long, they hit a point of no return. It might seem counterintuitive, but you will typically see an increase in honey and pollen because, without any larvae to care for, the bees focus entirely on foraging. The first sign will be a lack of eggs, then a lack of young larvae, and eventually your colony will have no brood at all.
Gradually, your hive’s population will decline. But if you observe more carefully, you’ll understand what really happens when your colony loses its queen. You might observe plentiful bee traffic at the entrance and upon inspection, find lots of honey and bees inside. To a new newbie, this might sound like a catch-22, but I firmly believe new beekeepers should inspect their hives regularly for learning purposes, and because it’s likely that their colonies are also new and less stable.įacial Recognition Technology Could Improve Livestock HealthĪ beehive can’t survive without its queen, but it’s a common misconception that colonies that have lost theirs will alter its behavior so dramatically that it’ll be obvious something’s wrong. The process of opening up your hive is stressful for bees and disturbs the carefully controlled atmospheric conditions within the hive, which is why many experienced beekeepers perform less frequent inspections on their older, more established colonies.
For that reason, I recommend that new beekeepers inspect their hives once every two to four weeks, but no more often than that. Hive inspections, when done properly, will catch problems early and give you a chance to fix them before too much damage is done – and they’ll also give you a great opportunity to learn. Often if a problem is noticeable from the outside of the hive, it’s progressed too far to be remedied.
That way you can recognize any changes if and when they happen.ĭespite these merits, observation from the outside is no substitute for actually opening up your hive and examining the combs within. It’s also a good idea to make yourself familiar with what’s “normal” for your bees – in terms of traffic (the number of bees flying in and out of the hive), and also in terms of how many dead bees are near your hive. I encourage beekeepers to observe their hives from the outside on a weekly or even daily basis so you can see if your bees are bringing pollen or even catch a pesky ant invasion. Assessing colony health based solely on the level of “bee traffic.”
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