Inspection when hive is heavily bearded

[Jen]

 Is it okay to do an inspection on hives that are heavily bearded?

 My first thought is the bottom box and bottom board would not be moved during inspection ~

[tbonekel]

When I inspect, I put a few puffs of smoke in the entrance. If you do that, you may set them all to flight or make them go back in. Either way, it will disrupt them. Other than that, I wouldn't any issue. Do yours beard in the middle of the day? Mine only beard at dusk.

[Jen]

Mine start to beard pretty heavy at around 3pm until dusk. I was hoping to do the inspection as usual and let the beard stay intact 

[pistolpete]

By this time of year I pretty much leave the bees alone.  In the spring it's important to keep track of swarming activity and queen health.  By July a hive strong enough to beard is on track and " on autopilot".  All I check is to see how full the super is  to determine if I need to add another.  I stay out of the bottom boxes, because rolling a queen now could cause wintering problems.

[riverbee]

" Is it okay to do an inspection on hives that are heavily bearded?
 My first thought is the bottom box and bottom board would not be moved during inspection ~"

jen, what are you inspecting/looking for? your bottom box and bottom board never needs to be moved really until divides or if moving a hive. if you are going to take a peek in a hive with heavy bearding going on down below a super, you will have lots of bees in the air.

like pete said, i pretty much leave the bees alone after spring management, with supers on, as long as i know my queen is good to go. i stay out of the bottom deep, i might take an occasional check in on the second deep, lifting the first super off.  i am also mindful of dearths, the need to feed,  or a change in the hives demeanor or other indications that my queen/s are failing, or absent to give me reason to go to the bottom deep.  i disturb as little as possible, it is disruptive and does set a hive back, although sometimes it is necessary.

remind me of your setup? deep, medium, medium, and foundation to be drawn? if you don't need to be in the bottom deep, i would say let them alone?
that's just my thought.

[LazyBkpr]

   Biggest beard I had today, it was 90 and REALLY humid.. walking into a 75 degree house felt like I walked into a freezer...
   I did my last one week inspection yesterday, My intervals now will be two weeks as stated, to check on their status only. With the exception being problem hives I am dealing with.

   


   Both of these hives were started as packages. Hive on the right superseded their queen about five days before the hive on the left did it..  Left hive is filling their first super with comb and honey, hive on the right has not yet filled out their second brood box..  I will check them again next week, if there is not a marked improvement I will split that hive down into nuc's for the winter with the new queens I started today.
   Some of the hives that are up to par will get moved to an outyard in two weeks and I will only check them to insure they are steadily growing. The less I bother "those" hives the better they will do.

[barry42001]

well as LazyBkpr stated last once the bees are out of swarming mode, the less you disturb them the better they will develop. As stated every 2 weeks or so is fine. As far as smoking the bees forming the beard, might be noted that they are the older forager bees that if any are inclined to be defensive, it will be them. Certainly have your smoker lit and available, but let the bees demeanor determine if and how much smoke you need.

[iddee]

What Pete said.

[Jen]

Hi Iddee, when I saw that you replied I was SURE that you were going to say "Pack your bags Jen, take a two week (or more)vacation from your bees, but not from this forum!!"   

   
     

[Jen]

Riv- "jen, what are you inspecting/looking for?

      The two hives on the left I've been keeping my eye on. The smaller one is a dawdler, the last two checks show that it's full of bees now. Two weeks ago I put on a medium. Checking today to see if the medium has pulled wax. It does    and some nectar, nothing else.

     The hive on the far left, is the one you helped me thru a couple of weeks ago, where we reconfigured a new empty brood box on the bottom, then the medium of brood, then the top medium full of honey on top, we had figured that the queen was trapped prior. Today, pulled off the honey medium and the brood medium to see if the bees were filling out the new deep frames. They have filled it out and there is only a little bit of nectar in it. Will check again in a couple of weeks to see if queen is laying in the deep yet.

This is why I was in them today:  If most of the new deep foundations are pulled wax, should I continue to feed them?

[riverbee]

okay jen, my apologies, you have good reason to be checking these two hives on the left, sorry, i had a brain fart......
it happens once inawhile.......
forgot about the reversal/shuffle, comb drawing, etc..... the two on the right with the bearding, these are very strong colonies.  here we worried that these colonies might not have drawn the comb out and they have!

how are the queens doing in the two on the left? how well are they laying and what is the pattern ?

at some point, in a good scenario, the queens will either run out of of room in the mediums and move down or be 'pushed' down, because the bees will be filling the frames to ready themselves for overwintering, unless you have a queen problem.
i would continue to feed them right now, i don't know your weather, or flow,  but i sure have heard and read about your drought. feeding 1:1 syrup will keep the queen laying and also sustain them, with little nectar stored, if there is no flow, a slowdown, or you are in drought.

i am curious as to how well these queens are laying?

[Jen]

In the one farthest to the left, the queen is doing great, the medium (now in the middle) has more than half of the frames filled with brood and an arc of honey and the other frames have nectar and pollen. The deep on the bottom is pulled and ready for eggs.

The smaller one, is doing the same, more than half of the frames filled with brood and an arc of honey, the top medium is pulled and waiting for eggs.

The patterns seems fine to me, Some frames are full of brood, and some are not, I figure the less full frames have recently hatched, like there is a there is a large piece of the puzzle missing out ot the middle of the brood.

Regarding the two hives on the right, Yeah! I'll be going thru those tomorrow, just down to the deeps but not into the deeps. There has been A Lot of orientation flights this last two weeks.

[Bamabww]

Is it okay to do an inspection on hives that are heavily bearded?

 My first thought is the bottom box and bottom board would not be moved during inspection ~

Jen,

I would not hesitate to inspect my supers while bearding was going on but as others have said, I wouldn't go any lower than the supers. I always have my smoker lit and handy but never smoke them unless they are "really annoyed" at my presence.  And that has rarely happened with my bees. Good luck.

[Jen]

Bama, I decided to leave them be when they are bearding, I have until around 3pm before bearding starts to check the hive anyway. To me, the bearding looks so relaxed for the bees, I just don't want to bother them

Thanks for all you input guys