Here are some thoughts on inspection frequency. There is, not surprisingly, a balance to be struck. I'm in Boulder, CO, and assuming we're talking about new beekeepers (first 3 years) with a 1-5 colonies. > My advice has > always been to inspect frequently and learn what normal looks like so you > can recognise abnormal. > If you inspect too frequently, you won't ever see "normal." Daily is too frequent. You won't see that much progress anyway. Weekly is probably fine, and I recommend that for new nucs, packages and swarm prevention for overwintered colonies. I say that every two weeks is fine for the rest of the summer and fall. A mite count must be done monthly. > > Technique may play a part as there's obviously a difference between > gloveless and gentle compared to full suit of armour and bashing them > around. > Yes, definitely!! Use smoke. Try not to use gloves, but have them handy. Limit the time the hive is open to 15 minutes. Temps 62F+. Take out an end frame, then ONE frame out at a time, back in the same order order it was in, especially in the brood nest. As mentioned already, have a plan or a goal. There are 3 basic things to check every time. Food stores, queen presence, space needs. Then there are specific questions you might focus on. Pick one each time so you don't overwhelm either yourself or the bees. I want to see what eggs look like. I want to see what capped brood looks like. I want to see the queen (but don't ravage the colony to do it). How much food do they have? Where are they storing it? Are they building straight comb? I think that sometimes when old-timers give advice to beginners they forget how much they (old timers) already have going on subconsciously. Maybe without registering it, we've seen pollen coming in, or not, seen drones flying, or not, smelled bee bread, our smokers are packed well and stay lit, we know how much smoke to use and when, we know what the bees should sound like, we know how many stings to expect. We know what we mean by "inspection." For me a routine inspection means looking at about 3 frames. Now. But I remember wanting to see what was on every single frame (in 3-4 deeps and sometimes having all of them out at once and them putting them back in the way I thought they should go based on the one-size-fits-all picture in the book and getting so involved in it that I forgot to give a few puffs of smoke now and then. I don't remember noticing whether the bees were watching me. And, yes, a full suit and gloves, the old fashioned heavy duty kind. Bees were tougher then, and so was I. I see similar inspection technique in some of my mentorees, and I have my gloves ready when I visit their hives because the bees are ready for a bear. My beginner classes include a real live hive inspection when the weather is good for it, and students tell me it's when they learn the most. > I went to Google (Scholar too) to see if there is any evidence for > inspection setback maybe it was done and dusted 100 years ago). > Tibor Szabo (Sr.) did some work on it a while ago. It might have been presented at an ABRC conference when they were still stand-alone and in Texas. I think he just lifted lids and found fairly long lasting effects, but I don't remember what, maybe thermal structure of the broodnest? Taber's 72 hour weight change data is interesting, but I suspect that the forager behavior isn't affected as much as what's going on in the brood nest. Again, you'd have to have a definition of "inspection." Some of the new in hive sensors and IR cameras might shed more light. So, to sum up, it depends, as usual. Cheers, Kristina Williams Boulder, CO *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html