Open & Inspect - Step 17 - Beekeeping Supplies Protective Clothing Beekeeping Equipment

Opening and Inspecting the Hive
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What you are looking for when inspecting a frame

If you are inspecting a honey-super frame that has been above the queen excluder, you should see only capped and uncapped honey and pollen cells, and the cell wax should be very light in color, almost white. You may see some darker-colored pollen cells. You should never see eggs or brood in the honey supers. If you do, this could mean: a) you forgot your queen excluder; 2) the queen is dead and the workers are laying in an attempt to produce a new queen; if so, the workers would normally attempt to raise a queen in the brood boxes, not in the honey supers.

If you are inspecting a brood frame, a close inspection of the frame reveals the condition of the queen and therefore the colony. The pictures here show a full brood frame that came from the inside of the brood cluster. The bottom picture shows a close-up of the frame. This is a very healthy frame, which has the stereotypical pattern you should expect to see. Capped and uncapped honey cells are along the top and sides, uncapped larvae and egg cells are scattered throughout the middle, and the middle is filled with a majority of capped pupal cells, as shown here. A further close-up of the capped brood area reveals the white, grub-like larvae curled up in their cells.

Although some of the cells may be darker after they are reused from previous brood, the color of the brood cappings should be light yellow, and they will be either slightly convex (worker cells) or rounded into a dome (drone cells). In any case, the cell cappings should never be sunken in or broken. However, you may see incomplete cappings over pupae that are being sealed for their final development. If this is the case, you may see the head of the pupae facing out of the cell.

If you see large cells protruding from the comb and hanging down, these are queen cells. The presence of queen cells indicates that the colony is growing a new queen. Either the queen is weak or has died, or the colony is stressed because of overcrowding, disease, mites or overheating. In any case, you must determine the problem and correct it immediately. If there are a large number of queen cells throughout the brood chamber, and they are placed more toward the bottom of the frames, the colony is preparing to swarm. If the queen cells are placed more toward the middle or top of the frames, that usually indicates that the queen is weak or missing.

Feeding and Watering
Opening and Feeding the Hive
Opening and Inspecting the Hive
Packaged Honeybee & Queen Suppliers
Preparing to Visit the Apiary