BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER > NATURAL & ORGANIC BEEKEEPING METHODS

Inspections, the good ol? days.

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Michael Bush:
>Without these pests how often were the brood inspections?

How often I do brood inspections has more to do with my current goals.  When queen rearing they are often.  In outyards they tend to be two or three times a year.  That's now.  In the 70s it was about the same.  I opened the hive more often out of curiosity than management.

Ben Framed:

--- Quote from: Michael Bush on October 07, 2019, 09:04:25 am --->Without these pests how often were the brood inspections?

How often I do brood inspections has more to do with my current goals.  When queen rearing they are often.  In outyards they tend to be two or three times a year.  That's now.  In the 70s it was about the same.  I opened the hive more often out of curiosity than management.

--- End quote ---

--- Quote from: TheHoneyPump on October 06, 2019, 06:15:39 pm ---Regardless of the pests and diseases, the natural seasonal cycle of the honey bee colony has endured.  Meaning when they brood, when they do not, when they mass forage, when they swarm, when they slow down, when the cluster tight and go near dormant etc etc.  From the ages of old:  10 to 14 day inspection cycle in the spring to manage population size and curb swarming.  Zero inspections through the honey flow.  One, maybe two, inspection in the fall after the honey came off and just before feeding/wrapping for winter.  Perhaps 5 inspections total over the course of a year.
Now due to all the challenges, add shorter inspections of 5 to 7 days in spring, and add 1 late summer check on mite load.  No change in fall inspection frequency.  Once, maybe twice.

--- End quote ---

Thanks men, are yall allowing for the problem of the SHB in this layout?  I am thinking HP does not have this pest. What about you Mr Bush?
Phillip

BeeMaster2:
I think I have killed more SHBs than most when I put oil in my oil trays. In 30 days every hive would have thousands of them dead in the oil and they would stink and I had to wash them out.
Now I just kill them when I see them but I rarely do anything else to manage them. I let the bees control them. They only wreck havoc on a weak hive that has too much space.
Jim Altmiller

Michael Bush:
Small hive beetles have never been much of an issue here unless the hive gets queenless and dwindles.  It would be helpful if I got into all of the outyard bees more often, but I don't have time.  Small hive beetles don't kill hives though.  They just make a mess of the ones that are dying.

Ben Framed:
I agree that a strong well established hive does a pretty good job of keeping them intact. But to a keeper interested in late summer and fall splits, they can be a thorn in the side. It just seems to take more resources to make late summer splits in SHB territory, one had better watch these new splits very carefully, which  takes time and careful management.

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