I am trying to speed up my hive inspections. When checking that a hive Has a laying queen, do you usually stop when you see capped worker brood, or do you usually keep going until you see young larvae, or do you keep going until you see eggs?
So is it bad bee keeping to check every frame every inspection? I was planning on it with 2 single hives.It depends on the situation of the hive. If I was waiting on a newly mated queen, any worker brood or eggs is good. I will spot check different boxes to see how big the brood nest is too. If I am concerned about a swarm or lost queen, I need to see eggs and maybe cleaned and polished cells waiting for the queen to lay in.
My inspection is usually to assess the colony condition overall and what they are up to. I need to know if they are growing or shrinking the brood nest, back filling, swarm cell building, superseding, giving the queen plenty of room to work, piling in the nectar, etc. Along the way you will see the queen or the evidence. I have sped up inspections mainly by learning to see what's going on quicker.
If you just look to see if there's still a queen in the hive, you may not see the whole picture and miss a lot of signals as to what's going on. You need to look for signs the queen plans on staying till the next inspection. If you find a queen is missing, you could possibly have found out it was going to be missing the week before.
It's not bad bee keeping, and it's probably pretty common for newbees. I know I looked at most frames when I had my first two hives.So is it bad bee keeping to check every frame every inspection? I was planning on it with 2 single hives.
If you find a dry queen cup with an egg in it, how serious is the hive about swarming? When you find swarm cells in your hives, what do you generally do? Split the queen out? What if you can’t find her, then what?One important thing that I have not seen mentioned yet is if you are only checking some frames tip up all of the boxes to look for queen cells. If you find swarm cells it usually means you need to do something if you want to keep the hive from swarming.
I would split the hive. You may have to search thru the entire hive frame by frame to find the queen. Moving the frames to a new/empty box after you check them may make it easier to find the queen.If you find a dry queen cup with an egg in it, how serious is the hive about swarming? When you find swarm cells in your hives, what do you generally do? Split the queen out? What if you can’t find her, then what?
A dry queen cup with an egg is destined to be a queen cell and treated the same. They don't need to feed eggs, but will feed the larva to come. Swarm cells mean swarm coming and I split the queen away with a nuc size amount of bees. I also use the extra queen cells for re queening, more splits or just tear them down.If you find a dry queen cup with an egg in it, how serious is the hive about swarming? When you find swarm cells in your hives, what do you generally do? Split the queen out? What if you can’t find her, then what?
speed during a hive inspection does not work well. Sounds like you need to ask yourself why am I going into the hive today. Always have a goal in mind. Once you have accomplished your goal, you're done. Speed will cause regret.I am trying to speed up my hive inspections. When checking that a hive Has a laying queen, do you usually stop when you see capped worker brood, or do you usually keep going until you see young larvae, or do you keep going until you see eggs?