Field guide for beekeepers put together by Athena Contus Of Athena’s bees. Many photos are taken by the author someAre borrowed from the web. Pages are 4 x 6 and designed to fit into a cheapphoto book.

Beekeeper’s Hive Inspection Picture Guide for the Northeast

WHBee.com - 603 733-77361805 Route 16, Center Ossipee, NH 03814

Beekeeper’s Hive Inspection Picture Guide for the Northeast U.S.

by Athena Contus

Additional photos: Creative Commons License CC0

GeoOdyssey Publications

~ 2017 ~

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BROOD BOX

SUPER

Putting the hive back together: Entrance reducer should be turned to the smallest opening when nectar flow is over or slowed to discourage robbing or wasp invasions

Leave syrupon for foundation

drawing, especiallywhen no nectar flow

Slatted Rack

Screened Bottom Board

Landing Board

Inner cover notch up, outer cover pulled back, closes upper entrance:

robbing or wasps

Avoid smoking entrance: pushes bees up & out top; Wave a little smoke to encourage bees down when reassembling hive

Reducer

Slatted rack buffers brood from incoming traffic & cold. It also provides foraging force a place to hang out in spring rains rather than crowd up into the brood box

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Wax moths - destroy comb in WEAK colonies or frames in storage.

moth feces^

moth larvae^

Drone brood positioned between boxes; broken open during inspection. Not to be confused with wax moth larvae.

Look for “bee-space” errors in the hive.

Foundation also has only worker size brood imprints, encouraging “burr comb” building between boxes to hold drones. Colonies maintain 10-15% drone brood, spring to mid-summer.

drone brood

Drones

Wax Moths

Bees doing their own thing...

Robbed out honey comb

Varroa mites carry diseases & reach their peak of population in the fall. Test in spring - test again in late summer to

compare.

3% in fall is okay. 12% is too highDeformity also results from chilled brood

Varroa Mites

Deformed Wing Virus or ?

Supercedure Cell:Bees replace queen

Swarm Cell (above)Emergency Queen Cup (below)

All young are capped atabout nine days.

Workers: egg to hatch in 21 days

Drones: egg to hatch in 24 days

Queens:egg to hatch in 16 days

Festooning

Young bees 12 to 15 days old excrete wax. All the bees join in

to form comb. Comb building only happens on the nectar flow or when bees are fed a 1:1 syrup

in seasonally warm days. New foundation will not be drawn

out without a flow.

Queen Bees determine the race, genetics, and health of the colony. Eggs, larvae & pupae should always be present during the non-cluster seasons of late spring to early fall.

Northern hardy queens may lay eggs in tandem with the nectar flow. Egg laying peaks in early summer and slows down in the fall. A well mated queen may live up to six years; some live less than a year.

Look for pearly white eggs, larvae, & pupae - They tell you the queen is present.

Swarm prep - “back filling” nursery

Below: a frame that once held brood. See the rainbow pattern of dark comb and capped honey above. This is a sign the bees want to reproduce or “swarm.”

Note: no room to expand honey & pollen stores without filling the brood nest cells. When the queen runs out of cells, she slows laying eggs so loses weight, making it possible for her to fly away with about half the colony.

A daughter queen is left behind with all the food stores.

The Beekeeper can save the old queen if she is removed with a split. This is called an artificial swarm.

Northern bees maintain many “swarm like” cells, just to tear them down.

Look for other signs like back filling to confirm.

Supercedure is not swarming; Absconding is not swarming

Worker brood; drone around perimeter

Healthy brood frame: blow gently to see honey & pollen in top corners; even worker brood; drone around perimeter

Southern honey bee cappings on a dark, autumn honey (top)

Northern honey bee ‘bottle capping’ on a light spring honey (below)

Leaving space under the cap indicates a colony aware that freezing temperatures are a part of life.

This can be taught by northern nurse bees to a southern Queen’s offspring.

1st season honey comb: very fragile

The AFB scale in spotty brood is black & very hard for the bees to remove and the spores can live 75 years in old equipment. This is why some states have a “burn only” policy, BEES & EQUIPMENT - but other states allow the use of antibiotics to control the disease. The “roping” test is the best indicator. Look online for instructions.

American Foulbrood (AFB)

European Foulbrood (EFB)

Bee larvae infected with EFB appear twisted in their cells, sometimes forming an unnatural C-shape along the sides or in the bottoms of the cells.

Unlike AFB it is not fatal to a strong colony & a stick test will not “rope” out the larvae from the cell. Look online for instructions.

Sac Brood Virus

Broken caps are usually present as bees check for the disease. Larvae & pupae are yellow or dark and sack like in the cell.

Sac Brood Virus can resolve itself if the colony is healthy. The nurse bees may become carriers cleaning out the diseased pupae, but are unaffected, moving on to other jobs.

Chalk or Stone Brood

Little white or gray larvae mummies are a sign of Chalk Brood, caused by fungus. A strong population of bees in a colony will overcome the disease.

Good ventilation, like a screened bottom board, can help control excess moisture in the hive. Bees can clean it out as well as use their own preventative measures with thermoregulation.

Chilled or Bald Brood

Chilled brood can happen when the brood are expanding faster than the population of the nurse bees that keep it warm. The larvae lose color and eventually turn black. Uncapped brood can be a sign of hygienic behaviors, bees looking for issues or solving brood issues.

A beekeeper can bring on chilled brood when expanding the hive too quickly. Add supers preferably during a nectar flow, when temperatures are mild, and when the bees are busy filling the cells in the frames below.

Small hive beetles’ slimy infestations can be controlled by a strong colony. They thrive in the moist & humid southern states but have recently become an issue in the northeast. They breed in the ground so surviving our harsh winters is a challenge.

Small Hive Beetle

Ÿ Once you raise a part of the hive up, keep going up, up... bees could be crushed.

Ÿ Remove just one frame and place on the perch or lean against the hive. Make sure it does not have any brood in it.

Ÿ Reach in and pick up frames one by one, inspecting over the hive so any young bees that fall will fall back into the hive. Keep hives in the same order you found them.

Ÿ Close up the hive in the same order you take it apart, waving some smoke over the top to get the bees to go down inside rather than be crushed. Some bees will inevitably get crushed. All are willing to die for the hive so don’t beat yourself up about it. They benefit from your mistakes in the big picture.

Ÿ Eat a tablespoon of honey or drink a glass of mead. Celebrate your bees...

Ÿ Get your tools - Go out to the hive(s) - Get your smoker going - keep in reserve until needed - set behind hives on something non-flamable

Ÿ Suit up - at least a veil

Ÿ Use your tool to “crack” or loosen lid. Place lid on ground, top down and use for a base if needed.

Ÿ If there is only one box, “crack” the inner cover and remove. Bees may be on it so be careful to lay it or lean it safely nearby or against the hive

Ÿ If there is more than one box, remove the entire top box and place on the lid-base without removing the inner cover to keep bees protected from the sun and from robbing. Life goes on inside the hive.

Hive Inspection Procedures:

Never inspect a hive or remove inner cover

when colony is clustering: 60F is TOO COLD!

If the core temperature of a cluster drops below 57F the

bees will drop & die

Winter Clustering

Quilt Box Insulates

bee bread

fall honey

stages of brood

A perfect brood frame: Honey stored and “bottle capped” in northern honey bee style - if not, that’s okay. Bee bread (pollen) stored close to brood. Nice spiral pattern to the Queen’s laying of worker brood. The only thing missing might be drone brood, but this could be late summer. No drones raised that late in the season.

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• Cell Cleaning

• Capping Brood

• Tending Brood

• Attending Queen

• Receiving Nectar

• Cleaning Debris

• Packing Pollen

• Comb Building

• Ventilating

• Guarding

• First ForagingWorkers grow into every job in the colony

Harmless drones boost colony moral. Brood is

10 to 15% drone & helps keep nursery warm.

Where there are drones, there is hope for colony

survival.

Drones on hive porch have followed a new queen home

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