Some good options I have found in preparing for a hive inspection or if I feel I need to get out to the apiary but the weather isn't cooperating - too hot especially - It is remarkable how much data can be collected from outside the hive:
Use your phone to video the coming and going of each hive for at least one full minute.
- Take a photo of that hive if you have many hives. It will help you recall how many and what size supers you need to prepare frames for.
- If you use BroodMinder - highly recommended - take a temperature reading of the brood box.
- Back at your desk go through each video reminding yourself of the hive history, dates of importance - like swarm date, swarm capture date, install date, last inspection date, what is or about to bloom.
- Record time of day and the weather. A snapshot at the same time on different days or different times on the same day is smart.
- Is pollen coming in? Strong indicator of a laying queen.
- Is there fanning for ventilation - bee butts down - or fanning for incoming foragers - bee butts up? Sometimes it is hard to tell but when I have just moved a bait hive into place or hived a swarm, it is reassuring to see the nasanov signal in good use.
- Are drones present? Drones return to eat quite frequently from close by DCAs. Sometimes it is a strong indicator of swarm preparations.
- Count approximately how many bees enter the hive in that one minute and how many bees are on the landing board along with any interesting behaviors.
Do the math on swarm event colonies:
I assume a virgin queen is present in the parent hive on the swarm date and calculate when to expect capped brood from her. Remember that capped brood from the queen that swarmed may still be present and will emerge by about day 21. I wait until the new queen has had time to mate, begin laying, and produce a progression from open brood to capped brood before inspecting - typically about 16–18 days: ~5 days for her to get established, 2–3 days to mate, and ~9 days until the first brood is capped. Leaving the colony alone after a swarm reduces unnecessary disturbance, and doing the math helps avoid inspecting too early and worrying that she didn’t return from mating. You should still have time to buy and install a replacement queen if needed; meanwhile, colonies without brood mainly continue storing honey.- If I catch a swarm, I assume the mother queen begins laying from that date. The colony’s population won’t increase until the first hatch, about 21+ days. I give them time to settle; incoming pollen is a good sign, but monitor the population if it doesn’t rebound. Adding brood and bees from another colony can help.
- One last thing I can do is slip in a sticky board below the screened bottom board to see if cappings wax appears - and where - as an indicator that new brood is hatching. I have a routine of slipping this board in for a 24 hour period before the day of inspection.
Depending on how many colonies you have this data can form a respectable view of their status and fill several pages in your notebook. I find it empowering to help me put a good plan in place before I go in on a good weather day and rock their world.
Quick Update:
18 days turned out to be exactly correct to a hive with a swarm virgin on July 1st; but I did not see any evidence of a laying queen! So I drove out to a beekeeper who had one and did not get back in to re-queen until day 23 Much of this math was presumed based on the day the swarm left the hive, but instead of finding developing and capped brood - now it is day 23 - I actually now discovered about two day old larvae! They had a queen! I can only guess that heat and rain delayed her mating flight and laying in safe temperatures. Luckily, beekeeper friend, Kelly, needed a queen! All is right with the universe.
