Opening and Inspecting the Hive
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In addition to periodic apiary inspections, which are normally done without opening the hive, the beekeeper must sometimes resort to invading the bees' home by lifting the top cover and removing frames to perform a more thorough inspection.  Opening a hive should be avoided as much as possible, as it disrupts brood production and foraging activities and it kills bees.  However, it may become necessary under certain conditions; click here for further details.

If any of the reasons for opening the hive exist, you may need to open them to check their condition and take necessary actions.  Observe the following basic procedures; they may vary slightly by the situation at hand.  You will learn from experience how to address unique situations as you find them during your inspection.  Follow the rules of apiary etiquette and all times while you are visiting the hives.

	Step 1 - Prepare equipment and supplies You don't want to light the smoker, put on your bee suit, and visit the apiary, only to discover you've forgotten something back at the honey house!  Make sure you're ready for your visit by getting everything organized and prepared beforehand.  Click here for more detail.
	Step 2 - Maintain the apiary If your apiary needs trimming or mowing, or if you need to kill some ant colonies, take care of these chores before opening the hives.  Things go much better when you don't have pests, weeds and debris to contend with during hive maintenance.
	Step 3 - Organize your materials When you arrive at the apiary, organize your materials for the tasks at hand.  In this example, I am performing an inspection of a weak hive and a strong hive, so I have super boxes with me.  These not only serve to temporarily store the removed frames during inspection, but they are handy in case the strong colony has run out of room in their top brood box and I need to add a super.
	Step 4 - Remove the top-cover weights Take the rocks or bricks off the top telescoping cover so you can remove it.  If you don't have rocks or bricks on the cover, you should.  The first time a varmint like a raccoon decimates a hive by lifting the lid and raiding it, or a high wind peels it off and a storm destroys your colony, you'll wish you'd stacked something heavy on the top cover.
	Step 5 - Apply ant proofing If you have observed ants streaming in and out of the hive, you need to stop it.  An effective, but temporary, measure to stop the march of ants is to paint the legs of the hive stand with a used oil / grease mixture.
	Step 6 - Apply smoke in the entrance Apply a few puffs of smoke in the entrance of the hive and wait 30 seconds.  This is a critical, required step.
	Step 7 - Remove top cover Lift up the windward side of the top cover and apply a few puffs of smoke under the edge.  Then lift the cover off carefully and set it down.  You may find it useful to set the cover top-down, flat on the ground, so you can stack other hive parts on it, such as supers or brood boxes.  Ideally, you should have a wheelbarrow in which you can place the hive boxes.
	Step 8 - Remove the inner cover Remove the inner cover in a manner similar to removing the top cover.  Lean the inner cover against the hive to allow bees crawling on it to fly back up into the hive.
	Step 9 - Evacuate and remove the hive-top feeder If you have a hive-top feeder installed, evacuate the bees from the feeding chamber by blowing a few puffs of smoke onto them.  Remove the hive-top feeder in a manner similar to removing the top cover.  If your feeder contains syrup, take special care not to spill the syrup when removing the feeder, and do not set the feeder on the ground, since it will quickly be covered with ants.
	Step 10 - Smoke the tops of the frames Blow a few more puffs of smoke across the top of the frames in the exposed hive box.  This will drive the bees down into the comb.
	Step 11 - Discard old, unusable food If you placed pollen supplement or grease patties on top of the frames on your last visit, discard them if they are moldy or otherwise unusable.  If they are still edible, you may save and reapply them before closing the hive.  If you discard them, don't throw them on the ground in the apiary.  This will just encourage ants to visit your hives.
	Step 12 - Clean the tops of the frames If layers of old food, propolis or wax are stuck to the tops of the frames, scrape them clean with the hive tool and discard the refuse away from the apiary.  Be very careful not to injure any bees in this process.
	Step 13 - Remove unneeded hive boxes If you do not need to inspect the top hive box, such as a brood box or super that is still relatively empty, remove it in a manner similar to removing the top cover.  Set the hive box onto the overturned top cover and cover it with an inner cover or a cloth, to prevent other bees from entering the box.  Or set the hive box into a wheelbarrow and cover it with the top cover, as shown here.
	Step 14 - Pry loose the outside frame The "outside frame" is the frame farthest from the brood cluster, where there will be the least concentration of bees.  It is critical that you choose a frame with the fewest bees, away from the brood cluster, to remove first.  This avoids injuring or killing bees on populated frames, especially the queen.
	Step 15 - Remove the outside frame Carefully lift the outside frame, holding both upper corners of the frame securely.  Lift straight up, being careful not to injure any bees in the process, until the frame is completely removed from the hive box.
	Step 16 - Inspect the frame Inspect the frame at eye level, hanging it vertically above the hive box.  Make sure the frame stays vertical, so nothing falls out of the cells, such as uncured honey or larvae!  Holding the frame above the box ensures that if a bee falls off the frame, it will fall back down into the hive box and not on the ground.  This is obviously critical for the queen.  Dropping the queen on the ground is generally a very bad thing.  If you don't know she's there, you may either step on and kill her, or she will be unable to crawl or fly back into the hive. Please refer to the detailed instructions here.
	Step 17 - What you are looking for when inspecting a frame The frames tell you how the queen and her colony are doing.  You are looking for either normal distribution and quantity of brood and food stores, or abnormalities that indicate a problem.  Please refer to the detailed instructions here.
	Step 18 - Set the outside frame aside after inspection After inspecting the outside frame, set it aside, preferably in an extra hive box as shown here, or on a frame perch bracket.  If you have neither, you may set the frame on the ground, leaning against the hive, but this is not recommended, as it could be invaded by ants, kicked as you further inspect the hive, or robbed by other bees.
	Step 19 - Remove, inspect and store more frames Working your way toward the main brood cluster, remove additional frames and inspect them also, storing them outside the hive in the same manner.  By removing and storing multiple frames in this way, you can make more room for inspecting the main brood cluster and minimize the chance of injuring or killing bees.
	Step 20 - Locate the queen frame These close inspections of the frames should certainly reveal evidence of the queen, as shown in this beautiful frame, in the form of eggs, larvae and capped brood.  However, if your goal is to find the queen herself, you should closely inspect each brood frame until you find her.  You can locate her more readily if she is marked, as shown here.  If you live in an Africanized Honey Bee (AHB) area, it is more important to have the original queen marked and to locate the queen in your inspections.  Locating your own queen is an assurance that have hive hasn't swarmed or been invaded by AHBs.  If you have an AHB hive, you have big trouble.  If you can't locate your queen in an AHB area, you should immediately replace the queen with one from known, gentle stock.
	Step 21 - Replace the brood frames After you have finished inspecting the frames, you should replace the missing brood frames, restoring them to their original positions.  You may accomplish this by carefully sliding the moved frames over from the empty area toward the brood cluster.  Your primary goal is to replace the frames without mashing any bees, either between adjoining frame bars or between the combs. Please refer to the detailed instructions here.
	Step 22 - Rearrange the brood frames In special cases, you may want to move the brood cluster more toward the other side of the hive box.  This was the case with this weak hive that was having wax moth problems, since I wanted a more centralized distribution of bees in the box.  In this way there would be more areas of the hive box attended by bees, so they have a better chance of controlling the wax moths if they reappear.  So, I took one of the box's empty frames and put it right next to the queen frame, as shown here.  In this way, I moved the brood cluster one frame closer to the center of the box while eliminating an empty space in the center.  On the next hive inspection, if they are still having a problem with moths, I will eradicate the moth population again and move the cluster more toward the center.
	Step 23 - Close it up After all frames are arranged and replaced, and all hive boxes back in the hive, replace the inner cover or hive-top feeder, then replace the top cover with the requisite rocks or bricks on top.  Be careful, when replacing the inner cover or hive-top feeder, not to mash bees running along the top edge of the box.  The smoker or bee brush is handy for shooing them out of harm's way.

Feeding and Watering
Periodic Apiary Inspections
Reasons for Opening the Hive

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