How long to inspect a hive

[Swarm]

There's fast and there's loads of decapitated bees.

 

[tonybloke]

There's fast and there's loads of decapitated bees.

or, use top bee space, much quicker to use / inspect

 

[nonstandard]

or, use top bee space, much quicker to use / inspect

And this is because?

There is no difference in the amount of bee-space, the only thing with top bee-space is that you can't see the bees you crush on the bottoms if the upper frames.



(old chestnut/can of worms time )

 

[Poly Hive]

TBS hives are faster to inspect. Fact.

Why are the vast majority of hives in the world TBS?

When I used timber Nats I modded them to TBS for that very reason, faster to work.

PH

 

[nonstandard]

PH

I will not argue with your vast experience, I just cannot understand how it can be faster than bbs; or do poly's make a difference?

 

[Poly Hive]

It is just one of those things.

It's to do with being able to put the CB back on with out messing with moving bees, same with supers and so on.

Possibly it's partly to do with feeling more sure of not crushing bees enabling my frame handling to be better?

However if you ask Murray for instance he will tell you that (if I have this right) he got rid of his national units on the basis of time.

I have poly BBS at the moment and thoroughly detest it, and when they were planning the moulds why they decided on the classic BBS I have no idea, other than being compatible I suppose with the timber supers in existence.

OTOH my poly Lang is a joy.

PH

 

[madasafish]

Some of these times quoted are a bit quick aren't they? I mean, it can take longer than seconds to puff a bit of smoke and scrape the top bars.

On a good day, I can light a smoker and never use it on any colony.

 

[hallshoney]

single brood, if eggs and brood and no Q cells 10 to 15 mins. x2 or x3 brood maybe less as just check middle of top box for eggs then check bottom of frames for Qcells

 

[Phayze]

On a good day, I can light a smoker and never use it on any colony.

at the moment im only looking to see if she is laying so no smoke sugar water sprayer to side but usually not needed a quick look for eggs / brood most frames full of stores at the minute the weight alone is a big indicator there and the lighter frames are the ones i look on could be missing some on the heavier frames but as im not sure if she is mated i dont want to disturb too much,different once i know she is laying it will be back to looking at every frame

 

[Baggyone]

Currently 6 hives, all done in an hour from pulling the veil over my head.

Smoker always lit before that though, only use it to get bees down whilst putting boxes back on.

I rarely look at supers, just pick them up and kinda heft em. Look at a few frames just to check available space. Then onto the brood box. I never ever saw my first queen which I think helped me enourmously as I look for signs rather than my current queens. As others have said check laying space, eggs, signs of disease and queen cells. You see much more if you shake the bees off the frames as per the bee inspectors.

In and out the hive in about 5 to 10 mins with a couple of minutes getting ready for next hive. Thats making notes about the inspection and cleaning/disinfecting hands and tools.

Baggy

 

[Into the lions den]

Not really - I was taught that if you check the 3 central frames and find a queen cell/loaded cup then check the rest - otherwise don't...I was dubious but it seems to work. I think it works as bees are most likely to make cells from the middle outwards

Hmmmm............

Actually the centre combs are not where we most expect to find cells. The prime cells construction area in the perifery of the core area of the nest. In our BS unit, which we were on yesterday and continue with today, we go in at the outside edge. If in a hurry we go from one side of the nest over to the centre. If you meet whole patches of eggs only at the first active brood bars you meet then you have an expanding nest and the presence of swarm cells is highly unlikely. The prime zone for the construction of swarm cells is around the edge of the combs one the first couple of combs with sealed brood you meet as you go across (though they can actually be anywhere, even hung from the underside of the excluder). Most such colonies have relatively few, if any, swarm cells smack in the centre combs of the nest.

It IS possible, though unusual, for a colony to have cells on one side of the nest only, so we do tend, in the interests of pace, to play the odds and examine from one side in towards the centre, and one frame past the centre, if no issues found, close her up till next time as the rest of the work is just a time eater. Unless there is a serious purpose, such as for splitting, we do not look for the queen.

The drill varies from visit to visit, such as what side of the box to start at, so truly awful combs do not get left undisturbed or un culled at one side of the box. Also.......EVERY active brood comb MUST be checked in the twice yearly full disease check (of course we are always on the lookout for such issues but twice a year they get the full works).

Time per colony is a hard one............however............the overall budget which we only exceed in severe cases of splitting being needed on many colonies, is six minutes per hive average for staff, less for myself and the lead beekeeper. A classic example of this was on Monday this week when on the last site of the day it took myself and Jolanta the lead beekeeper (there is also a gopher in the team) 1hr 50 to complete an apiary of 20 near Perth which is well over normal, but then 17 of the 20 had swarm cells in various stages and required major surgery, all split with flight boards for later re uniting, so now a tall lot.............tough end to a tough day. That works out at 11 beekeeper mins a colony, which is unusually long for us.

 

[mbc]

Hmmmm............

Actually the centre combs are not where we most expect to find cells. The prime cells construction area in the perifery of the core area of the nest. In our BS unit, which we were on yesterday and continue with today, we go in at the outside edge. If in a hurry we go from one side of the nest over to the centre. If you meet whole patches of eggs only at the first active brood bars you meet then you have an expanding nest and the presence of swarm cells is highly unlikely. The prime zone for the construction of swarm cells is around the edge of the combs one the first couple of combs with sealed brood you meet as you go across (though they can actually be anywhere, even hung from the underside of the excluder). Most such colonies have relatively few, if any, swarm cells smack in the centre combs of the nest.

It IS possible, though unusual, for a colony to have cells on one side of the nest only, so we do tend, in the interests of pace, to play the odds and examine from one side in towards the centre, and one frame past the centre, if no issues found, close her up till next time as the rest of the work is just a time eater. Unless there is a serious purpose, such as for splitting, we do not look for the queen.

The drill varies from visit to visit, such as what side of the box to start at, so truly awful combs do not get left undisturbed or un culled at one side of the box. Also.......EVERY active brood comb MUST be checked in the twice yearly full disease check (of course we are always on the lookout for such issues but twice a year they get the full works).

Time per colony is a hard one............however............the overall budget which we only exceed in severe cases of splitting being needed on many colonies, is six minutes per hive average for staff, less for myself and the lead beekeeper. A classic example of this was on Monday this week when on the last site of the day it took myself and Jolanta the lead beekeeper (there is also a gopher in the team) 1hr 50 to complete an apiary of 20 near Perth which is well over normal, but then 17 of the 20 had swarm cells in various stages and required major surgery, all split with flight boards for later re uniting, so now a tall lot.............tough end to a tough day. That works out at 11 beekeeper mins a colony, which is unusually long for us.

Impressive stuff indeed !
To find that number of slimmed down queens and to splitt in that time is some going (and to observe that it took an unusually long time !), but I have to ask, 17/20 colonies trying to go, were these NZ swarmiolons ?

 

[scuttlefish]

Impressive stuff indeed !
To find that number of slimmed down queens and to splitt in that time is some going (and to observe that it took an unusually long time !), but I have to ask, 17/20 colonies trying to go, were these NZ swarmiolons ?

What's a swarmiolon?

 

[VEG]

they are just referring to their swarming tendencies.

 

[babnik42]

I tend to spend a little too long also. I know this, as the bees tend to let me know about it! I want to record what I see, and found this just took too long. What I do now is setup a small video camera on a tripod in front of the hive, and just comment on what I see and if there is anything interesting, I'll show it to the camera. This means I can go quicker, but have everything recorded. Cuts down on time I have a hive open. I also try and figure out what I'm going to do before I open up.