# What ten things...



## hpm08161947 (May 16, 2009)

No time for 10 things. But here is the technique we use. Walk up to the hive and pop the lid... does the hive roar back at you... if yes... good hive.. move on. If not.. well you need to find out why not. Usually this may only happen once every couple yards. So an inspection of a 20 hive yard takes about 15 min.


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## fish_stix (May 17, 2009)

Yep! We just pop the lid and look in. If there are bees all over the top of the frames they're good to go or may need a super. If not we find out why. Max of 10-15 seconds per hive unless they have a problem. Our detailed inspections are done when we make splits, normally 3 or 4 times between March and Sept. We also detail check our splits until they're off and running, usually every 2 weeks. No time for 10 items on each hive; in fact, I can't think of 10 items I'd want to check.


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## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

Oh... another lid flipper.


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## SPRUCE BEE (Mar 14, 2009)

Keith Jarrett said:


> Oh... another lid flipper.


.. and another patty wacker or two to go with that "lid-flipper Keith" in november...eat bees eat!:lpf:


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## honeyshack (Jan 6, 2008)

i have not gotten to the point where i am confident in just looking on the top. I do look when open the lid, and practice my "It's good", then procede to see if i am right or not. The minimal I do is crack the brood boxes to see if there are swarm cells. During the season (post spring management) the most i do is check for mites and look for eggs. But looking for eggs for me is quick and painless. Once supering begins i only go through the brood boxes if they are not producing like the rest

I need to gain confidence in the open the lid and move on. But that comes with more experience


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## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

The "Bull of the Woods" would give you 4 minutes a hive to inspect all 10 frames of the brood chamber. We are not quite that fast, due to the mite situation now, and not using any miticides. Yes, we are "Germanic' and old fashioned, but after CCD, we want to keep a close eye on things. 

(Crazy) Roland Diehnelt
Linden Apiary, Est. 1852


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## Moon (May 7, 2011)

I feel silly asking, but I've never heard the expression 'Bull of the Woods' before! Why does the mite situation slow you down? Do the hives require closer inspection due to the mites or do you just try to work the bees a bit gentler?

_EDIT_

This is more of a P.S. then an edit. When you guys say you're just popping the lid, listening to the response, and then moving on; are you smoking them while you're doing this or are you just popping the top and leaving the inner cover?


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## greenbeekeeping (Feb 13, 2003)

When we are in the bee yards I can usually tell if a hive is good just by opening the lid. The way the bees act can tell you a lot. Are they running, roaring, calm, or pissed? Telling comes with experience. If I have a hive that i'm not sure about I'll pull up a frame and check it out. Most of this is done without smoke in our operation unless we really need it. We don't have inner covers just migratory lids. When Honey supers are on a hive that is not producing is always checked over.


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## fish_stix (May 17, 2009)

Not many commercial beeks use an inner cover. Can't see down in the supers with that silly thing on them! Little smoke in the front door, pop the lid, look and go on. If there are thousands of bees boiling over the top of the frames not much can be wrong, it's a strong hive. If you open them and nobody is home then it's time to find out why. Very simple, even a caveman can do it!


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## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

Moon - google "Bull of the Woods comic strip". It was a 40's term, and the nick name of the foreman. We take more time because we are treating the mites without chemicals.

We believe that if you open the hive, and nobody is home, it is too late to figure out what went wrong. A problem with a queen can take a cycle of brood or more top show up in population numbers. We tend to catch problems, and correct them, before they get out of hand. 

I guess I am just less intelligent than a caveman.

Crazy Roland


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## alpha6 (May 12, 2008)

I don't open a hive unless there is something wrong with the bees at the entrance, otherwise it's super, pull super and move on. I do inspect my hives coming out of Cali when I reverse, again when I split and when I put on the first supers. Other than that I won't open um up till the last supers come off and we start to go through them for winter. I find that if you are in a bee yard it is very easy to spot a hive having problems especially when compared to how the others are acting.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Why are you going into the hive? What do you want to find out?

Alive and strong? Then you don't need to pull frames.
Healthy? Then you gotta look at some brood combs. 
Queen assessment? Ditto. 
Need another honey supers? Pull the top box off, notice I didn't say remove lid, and check the next one down to see if it is full. You already know if the top box has honey in it by the weight. So, add super or don't. But the cover is still glued down. Nice.

But, mostly it depends on what you are doing and why and what you did the last time you were through the yard.


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## Trevor Mansell (Jan 16, 2005)

Once you've run allot of bees one can usually judge the queen just by looking at the top bars ,there is no reason to pull frames unless you have queens in hand or you are making splits, nucs or whatever.

If you find a problem with a queen or in the brood nest it is usually to late anyways, unless you catch it on that first lucky day. We can make a 100 nucs or splits in a day so it really doesn't make much sense for me to spend allot of time on one or two hives.


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## chillardbee (May 26, 2005)

If I was to look for ten things in the hive on each outing, I'd never get the season done. It depends on where in the season a the situation of the hives that you look for certain things. At the beginning I look for live hives and pack in the empty equipment. later I look for strength marking the weak and strong and equalizing (I often do this when putting on the pollen patties). At some point later, a quick glimpse through the frames will tell you if it's queen right (I do this usually at reversing). After that, everything's gravy. When I'm rearing queens I'll wait 2 weeks or so until I check them for matings but generally, if there is new wax on the edge of the comb and the bees are tight together, it's a sure sign of a mated queen. I still pull a frame out to see eggs just to make double sure though.


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## Bens-Bees (Sep 18, 2008)

Lid crack,
Patty whack,
Listen to their tone, 
Then this old man is going home.

:lpf:


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## Skinner Apiaries (Sep 1, 2009)

Roland said:


> We believe that if you open the hive, and nobody is home, it is too late to figure out what went wrong. A problem with a queen can take a cycle of brood or more top show up in population numbers. We tend to catch problems, and correct them, before they get out of hand.
> Crazy Roland


Smart man. Time spent in bees, is healthier bees.


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## frazzledfozzle (May 26, 2010)

if we are doing an inspection before the hives go into pollination we would look at the tucker situation , look for good amount of bees, look for eggs and lavae, look for any early swarm cells, dig out some drone brood look for varroa and everytime we go into a hive we look at 3-4 frames for any sign of afb.


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