• Nigerian Dwarf Senior Does
  • Nigerian Dwarf Does
  • Nigerian Dwarf Bucks
  • Nigerian Dwarf Kids By Year
    • 2019 Goat Kids
    • 2018 Goat Kids
    • 2017 Goat Kids
    • 2016 Goat Kids

Better Hens & Gardens

of Bramblestone Farm

  • Home
  • Blog
  • About
    • Publication Credits
  • Contact
  • Shop
    • My Account
    • Cart

Skills for Self-Reliance, Real Foods & Sustainable Living

  • Chickens
    • Basic Care
    • Breeds
    • All About Eggs
    • Feeding
    • Health Issues
    • Housing
  • Farm
    • Farm news
    • Help
    • Structures
    • Wild Things
  • Garden
    • Ornamentals
    • Seeds & Saving Them
    • How To Grow “X”
    • Starting Plants
    • Preparation & Tools
    • Pest Control
    • Varieties To Try
  • Goats
    • Basic Care
    • Conformation
    • Doe & Kidding Care
    • Feeding
    • Herd Basics & Behavior
    • Milk & Milking
    • Supplies & Equipment
  • Honey Bees
    • Feeding
    • Getting Started
    • Hive Management
    • Honey & Wax
  • Homemade
    • Beauty Products
    • Cleaning Supplies
    • Decorations
    • Miscellaneous
  • Recipes
    • Appetizers
    • Beverages
    • Bread
    • Breakfast
    • Desserts
    • Main Dish
    • Salads
    • Soups
    • Vegetables
  • Pantry
    • Quality Choices
    • Canning
    • Condiments & Flavorings
    • Dairy
    • Drying
    • Freezing
    • Root Cellaring

Better Hens and Gardens may earn a commission for purchases made after clicking on links on this page. Learn More

18 Comments

8 Honey Bee Hive Inspection Tips

hive inspection tips via Better Hens and Gardens This is the time of year when new beekeepers and seasoned experts alike are starting to regularly inspect their hives, so here are eight hive inspection tips to help ensure success:

1) Watch the Front Door

It’s very important to regularly inspect your honey bee colonies (this means taking off the top and going into the colony), but the colonies should be visually checked daily too.

During the daily check, watch the hive entrance (front door) – you’re looking to identify healthy hive activity like lots of pollen coming in during spring. This means that there’s lots of protein coming in to feed brood and things are going well.

Also, watch for signs of trouble like hive robbing activity, yellow jackets, or skunks; these can kill a colony in a week if you’re not monitoring and taking action if there’s a problem.

If you regularly watch colony activity, soon you begin to recognize the healthy behavior as well as signs of trouble, and you can react quickly to protect the bees.

2) Have A Plan

When preparing to inspect the hive, make sure you have a plan before you start. Your job during a hive inspection is to go into the hive, make sure the queen is healthy, make sure she is laying, and add or subtract bee food and housing as necessary depending on the season.

Make sure you’re comfortable wearing your protective clothing (bee suit, gloves, and veil) and that everything is secure – bands around pant legs, drawstrings on veil tightened, etc. We have a friend who neglected to tighten the drawstrings on his veil for his first hive inspection, and was surprised when he got stung.

Especially at first, use the protective gear the way it was meant to be used! Remember that bees don’t like dark colors (they look like a bear to a bee), so don’t wear any – even dark glass frames can draw a bee’s attention. Have your smoker lit, and smoking well before approaching the beehive.

3) When & Where To Stand

When inspecting the hive, don’t stand in the path of bees flying in and out of the hive, have the wind coming from behind you if possible (so the smoke from the smoker naturally goes into the hive). Also, have the sun over your shoulder so you’re shadowing the hive – how would you like it if someone suddenly took the roof off your house and shined a bright light (sunshine) in?

Bees notice extremes, so move gently, not abruptly. The best time to do an inspection is when all the bees are out foraging – there won’t be as many around to get upset about the intrusion. hive inspection tips frames

4) Listen, Watch, & Smell

As you approach the hive, listen, smell, and watch. You’ll learn to tell what’s happening in the hive not just by what you see, but by what you hear and smell too.

Then, gradually lift the roof and puff in a bit of smoke, wait a minute or two and then remove the top cover. Remember that bees communicate by smell, and the smoke interrupts their communication. The first thing they think when they smell smoke is a forest fire, so they load up on honey and a honey-laden bee is much less likely to sting.

You can over smoke a colony too if you over smoke and completely shut down communication, then they really want to sting. So smoke lightly. Generally, when you see them starting to line up on the frames looking at you, it’s time for another puff of smoke.

5) Preserve the Queen

The queen is the one bee that the hive must have, so be very careful not to crush or lose the queen as you’re doing the hive inspection (this is why it’s often a good idea to mark the queen, so it’s easier to find/preserve her as you’re doing inspections). And remember, she could be anywhere in the hive, so move very carefully and deliberately to avoid crushing or losing bees.

6) Examine The Frames

Once in the hive, examine frames the same way every time. For example, holding a frame in front of you, start in the upper left-hand corner, scan from the top to the right, scan down the right side, scan across the bottom to the left, turn the frame over and repeat. By getting in the habit of doing it the same way every time, you make sure that you quickly and consistently examine all the frames in your hive.

hive inspection tips smoking

 

7) Verify Brood/Hive Health

When inspecting the frames, the larvae should be brilliantly white, and you should see a ratio of eggs to larvae to the sealed brood of 1:2:4 (because they are eggs for 3 days, larvae for six days, and sealed brood for 12 days).

Verify that the queen’s doing a good job laying (a good queen will lay between 1200 – 2000 eggs/day) and that there are no nasties (varroa, nosema, etc.) going on in the hive. Clean-up any excess propolis, add or subtract bee food and housing as necessary for the season and conditions you’ve observed, make sure bee space is being maintained, and close the hive back up.

8) Keep Records

Make notes on what you observed, how the queen was doing, whether new frames, supers, pollen patties, sugar water, etc. were added, and what the bees were bringing in. These notes can be a valuable resource in determining what worked and what didn’t as time passes.

Following these easy steps will ensure you’re well on your way to successful beekeeping, and if everything goes well in the colonies then it shouldn’t be long before it’s time to extract honey!


Related posts:

Paper-In Bees to Strengthen A Beehive
Making Bee Candy
Inspect A Honeybee Hive After Installing A Queen
21.8K shares
  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Print

Filed Under: Hive Management, Honey Bees

About Lesa

Lesa Wilke is a homesteader and freelance writer who loves to inspire others on their journey to more sustainable lifestyles. She accomplishes this by sharing the skills she’s learned (plus support, advice & tips) while farming goats, chickens, honeybees, and produce.

« Bramblestone Herd Tests Negative Again for Small Ruminant Diseases!
Goat Show Success »

Comments

  1. Recep says

    December 11, 2021 at 2:56 am

    Thanks for your valueable recomendations.

    Reply
    • Lesa says

      December 12, 2021 at 11:48 am

      So glad you found these tips helpful!

      Reply
  2. RAMONA says

    June 14, 2020 at 10:28 pm

    Lesa. Very sound advice. I’m a 3rd year bee keeper. They are my pets. 1st year hive they huddled and starved. 2nd year mites. This is my 3rd year and they are looking strong, like little kids on a playground. I’m I’m looking forward to harvesting honey. 3rd time’s a charm. Thank you =]

    Reply
    • Lesa says

      June 15, 2020 at 8:56 pm

      Hi Ramona, glad to hear things are going well for you this year. It’s so great to get the honey 🙂

      Reply
  3. Vivian Black says

    March 6, 2020 at 3:19 pm

    You made a great point about having a plan to make sure you don’t get hurt or hurt the hive. My husband and I are looking for a bee control service that can help us with the bees who have chewed into our home. We will keep these tips in mind as we search for a professional that can help us best.

    Reply
  4. BENJAMIN says

    August 23, 2018 at 11:20 am

    Very impressed thank you

    Reply
    • BENJAMIN says

      August 23, 2018 at 11:32 am

      I am very interested in farming bees….how ever how do I find or protect bees from diseases and what medical treatment is needed to protect the bees

      Reply
  5. Karen Tomlins says

    May 14, 2018 at 7:31 pm

    WHERE DO YOU GET QUEEN BEES FROM? I AM THINKING OF GETTING A HIVE.

    Reply
    • Lesa says

      May 21, 2018 at 10:34 pm

      Hi Karen, Try contacting your local beekeepers association – they usually know who’s got queens for sale.

      Reply
  6. Eric Grandon says

    April 25, 2018 at 11:35 pm

    You mentioned smell in your approach to the hive. What exactly are you trying to smell as you look and listen. I would think any abnormal smell would mean it’s way too late to inspect anyway.

    Reply
    • Lesa says

      April 26, 2018 at 9:53 pm

      Hi Eric,
      You’re trying to recognize the different ways that the hive smells depending on what’s happening in the hive, what’s blooming, etc. If you become good at it, there’s a great deal you can tell about your bees from the way the hives smell.

      Reply
  7. Andabati jacob says

    September 11, 2017 at 12:24 pm

    thanks 4 good work done.

    Reply
  8. Samwel Omondi Omolo says

    June 8, 2015 at 9:49 am

    Am begining to keep bees how long do i wait to inspect..

    Reply
    • Lesa says

      June 9, 2015 at 9:04 pm

      After you release the queen, probably a week later you should go back in and make sure she’s doing ok and is laying eggs.

      Reply
      • becky says

        October 23, 2018 at 3:06 pm

        How many eggs should be there in about a week?

        Reply
        • Lesa says

          October 26, 2018 at 10:08 am

          Hi Becky, As the post says, a good queen will lay between 1,200 – 2,000 eggs per day.

          Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Oh, hi there! I’m Lesa,

and this blog is all about learning new skills around chickens, goats, gardens, honey bees, and DIY. Read more…

Read My Dairy Goat Books

  • Nigerian Dwarf Goats 201 - Getting Started Nigerian Dwarf Goats 201: Getting Started
    Rated 5.00 out of 5
    $6.99
  • Nigerian Dwarf Goats 101 Nigerian Dwarf Goats 101: Background & Basics
    Rated 4.95 out of 5
    $4.99

Visit Our Social Sites

Website Categories

The contents of this site are the property of Better Hens and Gardens. All content contained herein is copyrighted. We love it when you share, but if you do, please link back to the original post. Material included here is not intended to be, nor does it constitute, the giving of medical advice. This blogs content is for informational purposes only and Better Hens and Gardens or others associated with this site shall not be held liable for any damages incurred through the use of information provided in this blog. Better Hens and Gardens accepts products for review and other forms of paid advertising; however, although compensation received may influence the content or topics covered in this blog, it will never influence our opinion of any product. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are purely those of Better Hens and Gardens. Any product claim or other representation about a product or service should be verified by the manufacturer. Better Hens and Gardens is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
PRIVACY POLICY

Copyright © 2023 · Design by Erica Mueller Designs

Copyright © 2023 · Divine Theme On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Print
  • Pinterest
21.8K shares