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Hey guys and gals,
I live in the Portland, Oregon area. Today is March 4th and it was 60 degrees out. My bees are very busy, so i decided to look in my topbar hive and opened it today. Will they be ok, did i open it to early? Whats the general rule for inspecting?
Thanks, David
Hi David,
I think they will be just fine. I usually prefer warm days without wind to inspect my bees. Cold weather is not a big problem if you keep your inspection short.
At 60 degrees, you should be fine for a quick peek on a calm, not windy day. Bees will usually break cluster at around 50 degrees. A thorough of every frame would be risky - would likely result in chilled brood.
Ok good. I was mainly in empty combs and closed it up as soon as i got to a comb with a little bit of brood.
Hey BGBEES, I live in Clark County as well. I did a hive inspection the same day, I didnt see alot of brood in my top bar hive, too much clustering to realy tell.
Awesome, I didn't get to far into the hive to see any clustering, but i know they were very busy working yesterday. I have another top bar that I didn't open and they were also very busy. Both hives are bringing in lots of pollen. This is the start of my second season, so I'm excited to see how they do. I didn't take any honey from them this fall.