What defines a healthy colony

[Wilco]

Hi all,

Just wondered if people could post what criteria they use to determine whether a colony is healthy?

Background - trying to come up with a relatively objective metric for colony health as part of my PhD student's work into honey microbiome.

Also - does anyone have an exhaustive list of hive monitoring tech?

TIA

 

[drex]

But what do you mean by healthy? All colonies have endemic pests and parasites.
The question may be in the answer

 

[Wilco]

But what do you mean by healthy? All colonies have endemic pests and parasites.
The question may be in the answer

That's rather the point I'm trying to answer- what metrics do people on here use to decide whether a colony is, in their opinion, healthy.

 

[Anduril]

Brood pattern, variety of pollen, propolis and honey arch. Brood pattern would also be the shape of the cappings.

 

[fian]

That's rather the point I'm trying to answer- what metrics do people on here use to decide whether a colony is, in their opinion, healthy.

Since beekeepers are not veterinarians but rather livestock farmers, I believe that healthy is not the appropriate concept. We should talk about natural viability since if we detect a disease (EFB, APVB, Nosemosis, etc.) we resort to following the health prescription prescribed by a veterinarian. Let's say we have three types of actions:
-Ordinary linked to reviews to verify that viability.
-Ordinary linked to prolonging viability.
-Extraordinary linked to prolonging viability but under veterinary prescription.
For your question, would we be talking about the first point?

 

[Murox]

I think the signs vary during the year. For example mid winter a happy hum and occasional flyers would make me happy. In may I would expect a very different picture. Temperament tells quite a lot as does development of the hive as detailed above