All this discussion of how often to inspect a colony is a bit too cut
and dried for me.  The important thing is to pay attention to what's
going on and inspect based on what your 5 senses and common sense tell
you.  Sometimes that means looking twice or more in the same week.  More
often it means leaving them alone for as long as your self-discipline
holds up.
First learn everything you can at the landing board.
 
  Are they bringing in pollen? (usually a sign of brood rearing.)
  Are they clustering out on the front?  After dark?  (It's
either        really hot weather or they're getting crowded or both)
  How much activity is there in relation to other colonies? What kind of
       activity is it?  (Strong foraging could mean all is well
       and/or they need space, loitering or the 'washboard motion'
       could mean a swarm is imminent...)
 
Next consider the season, the nectar flow, and the local circumstances.
Use your head rather than a strict calendar to decide what to do.
 
The hives that attract your attention during examination of the entrance
activity are likely candidates for an inspection regardless of how often
you prefer to inspect.
 
Also, you can keep the intrusion of your inspections to a minimum.  You
don't have to search the corners of the hive to find the queen every
time you open it up.  You don't have to remove supers the minute they
are full.  (Bees are good capitalists - they work harder with a little
honey in the bank.)
Usually all you have to do is make sure there is room for storage in the
supers and verify that you have a good queen.  Pull a few frames in the
supers to check on available space.  Pull one frame from the edge of a
brood box to allow room to work and hopefully prevent rolling the
queen.  Then take one frame from the middle of the brood box and look
for eggs and a solid brood pattern. If you find eggs you have a queen
and you're done.  If not, look at another frame.  As soon as you find
eggs, close up and leave them alone.  If you're really worried about
swarming, it's the season, and you've seen evidence at the landing
board, you can look at a few more frames to check for queen cells.
 
The point is to use common sense and a little will power.  If you have
to have your nose in a hive every few days to satisfy your inquisitive
nature, get more hives and rotate through the apiary.  (Ok, I know
getting more colonies isn't always practical or even possible.)
 
I go to one of my bee yards every few days just to watch and be aware of
conditions and developments.  I open a hive whenever I think it shows
evidence that it needs attention, and at least once every two weeks I do
a few random spot checks anyway, as described above.
 
For the average hobbyist, once a year is probably not realistic, but
most of us do meddle with our hives more than they need us to.
 
Michael Reddell
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http://www.hotcity.com/~mwr