Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Some of these observations may still be a bit vague, but all will become clear. This
inspection can be carried out every time you pass the hives, even if you do not have the
time for a full, open inspection. It takes only a couple of minutes and may alert you to a
possible problem, but it should never take the place of a full, open inspection.
Carrying out the full, open inspection
If you are about to inspect a newly installed nuc, there is no need to use smoke before
opening the hive. Until a colony has grown and has almost filled the brood box I never
use smoke. Small colonies are generally well behaved and calm and, if they aren't, you
are going to have a feisty bunch of bees later on. The inspection schedule that follows is
for a newly established colony about a week old, but the general principles apply to any
colony and, by the time your colony has grown and expanded, your inspections will be
following the same pattern.
Lifting the lid
Approach the beehive from the side and, gently (using the hive tool if necessary), lift
the lid. Place this on the ground upside down. You do this so that you can place other
boxes on top of it later. If it is gabled WBC lid, you have to move it well out of the way
so that you don't trip over it as you move around. As I said, I don't use smoke on small
nucs because they are usually quiet enough without it but, if you want to see what effect
it has, then use a small amount only. Puff it over the top bars quickly and lay the smoker
down. You'll see the bees near the top bars quickly disappear and start to gorge honey.
Checking for eggs
Now remove one of the end frames of the box (you could remove the feeder if it is
empty). This will give you room to move the other frames about. Gently separate the
frames with your hive tool so that you are able to lift out the centre frames without
rolling bees against the wax as you do so. The centre frames of a small colony will hold
the brood, and it is this you want to look at.
Take out a frame with brood on it and see if there are any eggs in the cells. Hold it up to
the light to see the eggs better. There should be one egg at the base of each cell. These
are tiny white, stick-like things, and you should have a look at Photograph 1 in the
colour photograph section of this topic.
