When do you stop inspecting the brood nest?

[Do224]

I haven’t got a feel for this at all yet. People seem to stop inspecting the brood nest at a certain point during the summer, presumably thinking that swarming is very unlikely by that point. But when is ‘that point’ and what are the criteria for deciding when? Some people even allude to stopping inspections at the solstice (tomorrow!). Others seem to stop around the first week of July. Then there are those of us who have no idea and just keep up weekly inspections right the way through.

When do you stop inspecting the brood nest for the summer? Obviously checking and adding supers would continue regardless

 

[user 819]

Colonies that have requeened themselves I cease weekly inpections once decent blood laying is seen and may look every three or four weeks to see all is ok, but also keep and eye on stores . Other wise I still inspect every 7- 10 days until August ,a lot is knowing your bees and whether they look content.
Most of mine are double brood but a quick check in the upper BB is all that is required unless a QC or QC's are seen.
There is no definative time to stop as there none to start , it is imv reading and knowing your bees and all colonies will differ a little.
Colonies will swarm late if laying space is short or clogged with a late flow.

 

[ericbeaumont]

those of us who have no idea and just keep up weekly inspections

You may as well continue 7-day checks to help you learn to read colonies as they abandon swarming and turn to making honey.

Any early splits that have re-queened are so unlikely to swarm again that it's not worth considering, so bung on supers and check the BBs of those that are big but haven't yet swarmed.

Watch nucs that outgrow the box; take out a frame of sealed brood occasionally and give it to another colony, and give the nuc a frame of foundation. Alternatively, give a Maisemore nuc brood extension box and overwinter them on 12 frames, ready to go in the spring.

 

[Do224]

You may as well continue 7-day checks to help you learn to read colonies as they abandon swarming and turn to making honey.

Yeah that’s what I’ve done so far and plan to again this year. Just wondered if there was a rule of thumb…when do commercial operations stop inspecting for instance? I presume there comes a point when it’s not worth their time

Any early splits that have re-queened are so unlikely to swarm again that it's not worth considering,

That was my thoughts too but I did my first split this year and had the opposite experience. Split on 1st May. Queen emerged 11th May. Queen laying when I checked on 26th May and by 1st June they were preparing to swarm again. They’re now raising yet another queen. Is this very unusual…just bad luck?

 

[SWEET]

Watch nucs that outgrow the box; take out a frame of sealed brood occasionally and give it to another colony, and give the nuc a frame of foundation.

Top tip that

 

[ericbeaumont]

Is this very unusual…just bad luck?

Hard to say: maybe they had a v strong urge, perhaps the first queen wasn't up to scratch, or did you compress them for space? Could be a bit of all three.

 

[Do224]

Hard to say: maybe they had a v strong urge, perhaps the first queen wasn't up to scratch, or did you compress them for space? Could be a bit of all three.

The original queen and the new queen are both now doing well in other hives. Should have had plenty space…double brood and two supers given back to them after extraction. Even after everything, this is still the strongest of my four colonies and they’re busy filling the supers again now. I guess they just have a strong urge to swarm. Because they’re so prolific and so well behaved, I used the two nuc’d queens to head up two other hives. So now three of my four hives have these genetics…hopefully I haven’t just promoted the swarming genes…time will tell I guess