Making in-hive observations

[wayacoyote]

I'm very interested in gaining the experience that so many of you have in regard to what the bees are doing and on what schedule. For instance, knowing that "this brood is going from egg to emerging in x-number of days (or hours even)," and the like. However, it seems to me that such observations would require knowing exactly When things are occuring, which would further require getting into the hive very often AND making note of what is going on in specific cells.

How DO you do it?
I don't what to observe the bees to death, but I do want to make these obervations that many of you are able to make.

For instance, how long after drone are capped, do you check for mites?

WayaCoyote

[Michael Bush]

I have several observation hives. When I see the queen lay in a cell I use a "white board" marker and make a letter directly over that cell and note the date and time for that letter. Then I see her lay another egg, I mark that cell etc. Then seven days or so later I start taking more time to check on those marked cells and see what's happening. If I see them starting to close it up or I see they already capped it I make a note. Again, I don't have to worry too much until about day 17 or so then I start watching for them to emerge. To be acurrate you need to double check well before they MIGHT emerge to make sure the bees didn't chew out the pupa. Especially in a small cell hive. Then check regularly and when you see them starting to emerge you can make a note or if you actually watch them emerge or if you find the cell empty when it wasn't empty on day 17 or 18.

I was going to try to do it in a regular hive with a variety of cell sizes, but so far I haven't been able to get it all to work out. First you have to get them to draw it. Then you have to confine the queen so you know when she layed it. Then you have to check it very often to determine exacly how many hours (which is what I'd like to do).