Andrew Wootton writes:

> the question of whether beginners can open hives too often came up.  Some
> of my experienced colleagues suggested that it takes 2 or 3 days for the
> hive to recover from inspection and this causes a setback.  My advice has
> always been to inspect frequently and learn what normal looks like so you
> can recognise abnormal.

That's what we did in our first solo season, and I think it paid
off in the way you suggest.

> 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.

We were gentle, but very slow: we were inexperienced at manipulations,
we had to look at *every* frame since we didn't yet know the broodnest
pattern, and identifying capped brood vs honey, drones vs workers,
finding the queen, and finding eggs were all quite laborious processes.
So we got stung regularly, I think because we took so long,  After
a couple of hours, the bees said "enough already!".  I can't blame them.

We are now able to inspect equally gently but much, much faster,
as we have some idea what we're looking at, and we can often look at
only two or three frames and be satisfied that things are going well.
We've also acquired a box lifter and a frame lifter, which make it
much easier to move things around quickly and gently.

> I went to Google (Scholar too) to see if there is any evidence for
> inspection setback and drew a blank (perhaps my poor choice of search
> terms, or maybe it was done and dusted 100 years ago).  Anyone care to chip
> in?

I can't comment on the evidence (or lack thereof) for such a setback,
except anecdotally: the summer we inspected often, we got about
7 gallons of honey from our one hive, which is roughly the amount
we've taken in each of the two subsequent summers.

My question is, though: if one is a beginner, who cares if there's a
bit of a setback from frequent inspections while learning?  Surely the
net gain in the long term (for the humans and the bees) is worth it?


Anne, backyard beekeeper, Montreal.

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