How often should beehives be inspected?

Not all hive inspections are created equal, so let’s take a look at what it means to inspect a hive. Typical maintenance and inspection tasks can be divided into non-invasive and invasive activities:

Non-invasive Activities

• Prevention
• Observation

Invasive Activities

• Light Inspection
• Medium Inspection
• Deep Inspection

Let’s take a closer look.

Prevention

These are preemptive things you can do outside the hive to avoid problems or reduce their severity, such as:

• Hang a moth trap
• Set up ant traps
• Hang a swarm trap
• Use an enclosed apiary

Observation

You can learn a lot by simply observing what is happening without opening the hive. Here are a few questions to ask:

• Are foragers coming and going?
• What’s happening on the landing board?
• Do you see any robbing behavior?
• Are bees taking orientation flights?
• Is there any digging or scratching around the hive?
• What’s in the tray?

Hive monitoring systems take non-obtrusive observation to a whole new level by capturing temperature, humidity, sound, location, and weight data and storing it in the cloud where it can be accessed from your phone or computer.

Light Inspection

During a light inspection, the hive is opened, but no frames are removed. Here are a few things you can do:

• Perform a quick visual check
• Remove cross comb
• Install or refill a top feeder
• Install a beetle trap

Medium Inspection

During a medium inspection, remove as many brood frames as necessary to verify that the queen is laying and all is well. When you find what you're looking for, it's time to stop. Here are some ideas:

• Examine the pattern of eggs, larvae, and capped pupae
• Look for nectar, pollen, and honey
• Make sure there is enough space for the colony to grow
• Take pictures of a couple of frames and send them to BeeScanning for a mite check and health analysis  https://www.beescanning.com/

Deep Inspection

During a deep inspection, you might examine every frame in the hive, perform seasonal maintenance, or reconfigure the hive. For example, you can:

• Reduce the hive
• Rotate brood boxes
• Add a brood box or super
• Split the colony
• Do a more invasive “sugar shake” mite check
• Treat for mites