Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => DISEASE & PEST CONTROL => Topic started by: Goodybee on July 08, 2016, 08:17:45 am
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I have heard that a hive inspection can delay or set back the hive three days. Is this really true or is it more specific to certain brood stages or maybee certain scenarios like walk away splits etc. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
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I say it is true.
I have several hives and an observation hive.
When I take the observation hive apart for any reason, it takes the bees up to three days to fix it back to the way they want it. What is worse is that during the first 2 days the bees are ignoring the SHB's. They walk around, undisturbed, like they own the hive and lay their eggs like crazy. On the third day the bees are pulling SHB's, eggs and SHB larvae out of the hive in a mad dash to save the hive. If there are not enough bees to handle them, the SHB's take over and slime the hive.
This does not happen if there is only minor disturbance. A good reason to always put the frames back the way they were unless you are intentionally manipulating the hive.
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I would say that a thorough inspection (ever frame) probably sets a hive back a half a day or so. It's not like all work comes to a stop, but they do spend some effort fixing everything you broke or scrapped out etc.
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Of course it depends on how much you do and also how you replace frames and boxes. Likely it is 24 or more if you have done much more than just look around.
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I agree with Michael, a day or so. I generally put the frames back together with the burr and bridge comb intact that way all they have to do is mend it, not build new.