disrupt during flow?

[JUDELT]

Hi all from Middle of South Carolina! if anyone from this area could answer or anyone knowledgeable of this area- I was wondering if I should check the hives when another flow has begun/ I have checked them every week the last 2 weeks and they appear to be fine-lots of bees in hive! we had a flow earlier last month,too. I read everyone checking weekly, but also read and heard you should not bother them too much with a flow going on!? This is my 2nd year with the girls. any help appreciated, thanks ,judy

[barry42001]

this is the time of year when you need to be in your arms on a weekly basis to make sure they have space to lay eggs to make sure they have space to store nectar, to manipulate frames to ensure the Queen has egg laying space. when to add a super. you won't be disturbing them too much at all. but if you didn't do that, you'll be chasing swarms all spring and summer

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

[Jen]

Barry- ""you won't be disturbing them too much at all. but if you didn't do that, you'll be chasing swarms all spring and summer""

Ya! Just ask, Jen, the crazy lady beekeeper and her wonderlust girls! And I DID do all the stuff Barry mentioned.

[Yankee11]

I concur, I learned last spring that you have to be very good at anticipating not reacting.

I did a lot of reacting last spring. I have already pulled 2 queens and fixing to do about 3 or 4 more. It's a lot easier to
create the swarm and put them in a box rather than chasing them in the trees.

[Jen]

Remind me Yankee? how many hives do you have?   

[LazyBkpr]

   The reasoning is that disturbing them sets them back, and I have read that it then takes two or three days before they are settled in and back on track. following that reasoning they will be bringing in less honey while they re organize and get back to work...
   I have a few problems with what is said above.
   While I agree that a full blown inspection and rearranging frames/boxes etc WOULD set them back a day or two....   Doing a quick check for cells and looking at the bottom of the frames by tilting the box, seeing if they need more supers etc and putting them back together is not going to set them back more than an afternoon. They don't need to reorganize, because you didn't disturb the brood nest or storage, you just LOOKED to make sure they are not preparing charged queen cells.
  It takes 9 days for them to close up a queen cell. In general a hive will swarm about the time, or shortly after those cells are capped.  So on a two week inspection schedule the bees can cap and swarm before your aware they are making plans.
    The small amount of disruption you create by looking is not going to set back the honey production a tenth as much as it will if they swarm.

[Perry]

I pretty much do the same thing as LazyBkpr.
When you are first starting out I would say that you can't get in there too much (I know you can, like everyday, but). It is how you learn.
But once you get an idea on how things work you can slack off some. I will often just have a quick peek by tilting the upper deep back so I can glance along the bottom bars and if nothing jumps out at me I lower it back down. How often I do this depends on time of year, flow, etc.

[Jen]

Good Stuff here fella's. And that is pretty much what I do as well. I feel better now. I have sooo much to learn.

[JUDELT]

Thanks everyone! I have just been 'peeking ' to make sure all is well! this is such a great, helpful site and group of folks! thank again!
 

[tecumseh]

definitely what LazyBkpr said.....  do you really need to dig all the way to the bottom of the stack to see if they do or do not need space at the top of the stack?

[brooksbeefarm]

In my area this time of year it's almost a safe bet that if you have two deeps for brood, and a med. on top for stores, the bottom deep will have 2 to 4 frames with pollen and the rest of the frames empty. I will rotate the deeps and if the queen is in the med. super i will look for her and put her in the top deep and put a excluder under the med. super.If i can;t find her i'll put the med. between the two deeps till she moves up in the top deep, then take the med. out and put it on top with the excluder under it. Of course i have time to do this now, because our first flow doesn't start till the middle of May, They have time to put there house back together and then i only tilt and look between the two deeps for cells once a week. Sometimes this takes swarming off there minds, and sometimes it doesn't Last of April to mid June is the main swarm season for us. Of course this is just the way i operate. Jack

[Jen]

Whaaaaaaaat? 

[LazyBkpr]

LOL.. there went the last brain cell i had left.. THANKS Jack!

[Jen]

I think he did that on purpose! 

[brooksbeefarm]

  . Jack