To inspect a colony you must open it up and look inside (See Working with a Bee Colony). Once inside, pry the outside frame of the brood chamber loose.
Remove the frame from the body and hold it in front
of you with one hand on each end of the top bar. If
possible, position yourself so that the sun is shining
over your shoulder and onto the frame. Observe the
bees and the frame.
Inspect the brood frames for:
• Healthy larvae. Larvae should be pearly white. Gray,
yellow, brown or black larvae are diseased, chilled or
injured.
• Eggs standing in the bottom of cells. Recently laid
eggs will be standing on end in the bottom of cells,
one egg per cell. As they age, they gradually fall to
one side. Two or more eggs on the sides of the cell are
from a laying worker.
• Cell caps of healthy brood. These will be convex and
tan. Cell caps of unhealthy brood are often concave
and perforated with small holes.
• Area of cells with brood. A prolific queen will have
a laying pattern of brood with very few skipped
cells over most of the frame. The pattern should be
compact and in a semicircle, usually occurring over
the bottom half of the frame.
• Honey and pollen stores. Honey should appear
adjacent to the brood pattern. Adequate honey stores
will vary with colony size. Pollen is stored in cells
adjacent to honey.
Remove and inspect all of the frames that contain
brood. After inspection of a frame, place it in the
hive body toward the side from which you removed
the outside frame. After completing your inspection,
replace the frames in their original order and close the
hive.
When you open a colony for inspection, you
can also perform other tasks necessary for colony
maintenance, such as feeding, treating with antibiotics
or miticides, replacing damaged combs with frames
containing new foundation, adding an empty super or
removing a super of honey. Prepare the items you need
in advance and have them near when you open the
colony.
Items you should bring to the apiary or that you should keep on hand:
- Extra hive tool or tools, gloves, veil, bee suit and smoker.
- Matches or lighter.
- Dry smoker fuel.
- Extra frames with drawn comb or new foundation, and extra hive bodies.
- Container to collect wax scrapings or propolis.
- Jars or sealable bags to collect bees for mite testing or comb for disease identification.
- Queen excluders.
- Entrance reducers.
- Heavy fabric, such as burlap, or extra inner or outer covers to protect uncovered colonies or supers from robbing bees.
- Newspaper for uniting colonies.
- Permanent marking pen or pencil.
- Extra queen cages and queen marking paint.
- A sting kit for those allergic to bees (Epipen™), first aid kit and other medications for the beekeeper.
Source:
Skinner, Parkman, Studer, and Williams. 2004. Beekeeping in Tennessee. University of Tennessee Extension PB1745. 43p.