When to Inspect

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iball

House Bee
Joined
Apr 6, 2010
Messages
335
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0
Location
Mossley, Lancs.
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
6
I've been inspecting my bees every Friday for the last 5 weeks.

I won't be able to get into them this Friday or Saturday and the weather forcast for Thursday is rain all day.

So do I go in this afternoon 2 days early or do I leave it until Sunday, which would be 9 days between inspections.

My inclination is today and then a quick check on Sunday to get me back to Friday inspections, whilst maintaining 7 days or less inspections.

Ian
 
I would go in today.
 
All we need now is a third, different, reply and the old beekeepers adage is proven.:confused:
 
I would leave it to Sunday

Sunday
But if the queen is cliped you would be able to leave it longer
I am not saying how long just in case:smash: but somone will tell us:bigear:

Grub
 
now if you had a Warré, you'd be fine until September (or spring..........) :coolgleamA:
 
Surely depends why you are inspecting and on the hive and it's previous history? New queen/old queen/swarmed already or not? More info needed.:grouphug:
Cazza
 
just leave the poor things alone for a bit, they'll probably be fine.......... :biggrinjester:
 
Surely depends why you are inspecting and on the hive and it's previous history? New queen/old queen/swarmed already or not? More info needed.:grouphug:
Cazza

:iagree:

but if there were no adverse signs or followups required I would wait till sunday as well, especially if you consider that you lose 2 days build up everytime you invade the brood box (or so some wisoned old nameless unattributable beek told me in a pub, the name of which I cant remember)

:biggrinjester:
 
and a total loss of Nestduftwärmebindung every time, which is not a good thing!
 
I'm fascinated by all this, what are you looking for / at? I only open my hives if I really, really, really have to. Otherwise it's just supers on and supers of.

Please do explain, I only have bees and honey.

Chris
 
I'm fascinated by all this, what are you looking for / at? I only open my hives if I really, really, really have to. Otherwise it's just supers on and supers of.

Please do explain, I only have bees and honey.

Chris

No, not falling for that one! Should be posted in the adult forum!

:smash:
 
I'm straight as they come with this, I don't mess with my bees. From my perspective, which is no doubt way out of fashion, they are bees and know what they are doing just as they did before I was born and hopefully will do after I'm dead.

In a natural situation, (yes, such things do still exist), bees do not open their colony once a week or even once a year and poke themselves about, so...

....please do explain to me what you are doing and what I'm doing wrong...

....other than living in France.

Chris
 
Chris, apologies I'll take your question at face value then. I can only speak for myself.
I am a beekeeper, therefore I will practice active husbandry, if I did not do that then I would be a beewatcher (are you a bee watcher Chris?). I inspect with the intention of evaluating for and reacting to evidence that suggests:

To maintain my IPM or to check my intergrated pest mangement program is effective
I may be about to lose my investment (pro-active swarm management)
A colony that is weak and needs additional building up or support
A queen that is failing in some way
Monitoring the progress of some previous manipulation (e.g. split / combine / AS).

Does this have to be every 10 days, no, unless it is swarm season and I do not want to allow swarming. It is still the latter stages of swarm season in my book, hence a 10 day (more convieniently 7 day) inspection at this time.
 
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and a total loss of Nestduftwärmebindung every time, which is not a good thing!

How do you pronounce that !??!
Nest - duff - warm - me - bin - dung ?

That has got to be word of the week !!!
 
Look! if it happens to be a nuc (or even a small cast swarm) on six standard frames drawn, in a 14 x 12 brood body full of foundation, and with a super of foundation, that is one thing; if is on double brood and brimming with bees that is another. A whole range of scenarios in between. And here we have not a single clue given for this one!

I'm obviously with Cazza on this one as we posted about the same time AND are in agreement.

RAB
 
I am a beekeeper, therefore I will practice active husbandry, if I did not do that then I would be a beewatcher (are you a bee watcher Chris?).

That sounds very much like playing with words and taking a superior attitude, but be that as it may be I should perhaps be clear that my bees, (that I watch), don't suffer from any problems and still provide what I consider a fair enough yield even after swarming. I would expect in a decent enough year to get 20 to 30 kg per hive.

I occasionally loose a colony but I would consider this to be a natural occurrence and survival of the fittest.

Sorry if this it a bit of thread drift, but I am interested in the reasoning behind all this. and I'm quite happy to be in a minority of one.

Chris
 
All we need now is a third, different, reply and the old beekeepers adage is proven.:confused:

Ok, I went in today ,intead of Saturday cos away fri morn -sun eve, weather crap tomorrow - maybe.....

Both colony and small split in nuc box had queen cells capped. The colony I had believed, had a virgin queen running around last week......? the nuc had had a sealed queen cell pulled apart last week and I hadn't been sure whether to reunite or not, I didn't.

Today- The colony had 5 sealed cells, I scratched two small ones, cut 1 good looking one out and put in a cage to keep in nuc as back up and left two nice looking ones in. Rightly or wrongly, I'm sure someone will tell me:.)

But hopefully I will now have both with queens in a week or so, and even more hopefully, NO swarms......
 
It looks like I've opened up a can of worms here..sorry.
 

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