Layens Spring Inspections

Whether you’re getting into your Layens hive to check for “proof of Life” or something a little more, I’ve tried to outline below the basic steps and conditions I follow when getting into my hives early in the spring.  Everything is location specific so assure you know your local conditions and expected weather prior to opening your hives.  Remember that spring is always a questionable time for colony survival and the beekeeper can help or hurt.

Worry and Concern

Beekeepers are often overwhelmed in the spring with concerns about their colonies.  They have wondered all winter long if their colonies will make it.  Are they alive now? Do they need food? What if I need to do something to help them?  This concern can be increased by experiences from past winters, comments from your beekeeping clubs, YouTubers in the south already talking about swarming and splits, or maybe that one warm day sandwiched between rain and snow where your anxiousness takes hold and you jump in.  Who knew that something we started as a fun hobby can turn into stress and worry.

Well, I’m here to tell you that your hobby is still just a hobby as long as you allow it to be.  Bees really do know how to take care of themselves and if you’ve prepared them a proper home and left them the food they collected in the fall, 90% of your concerns shouldn’t be there.  Left alone in the spring, bees will do exactly what they should to survive.  They are experts at it and often it’s the beekeeper either in their winter preparations or spring pestering that creates risks.  Bees know when to brood, they know when to emerge and forage, they know how to keep their home tight and tidy if left alone during this risky time just like they would if in a tree and didn’t have this good-hearted beekeeper around to save the day.

Another thing we should remember is that no matter how good a job we did getting them ready for winter some colonies will almost always die.  This is 100% natural and happens everywhere in nature.  Dr Seeley mentions this in his research into natural swarms.  He expected that 40-50% of all natural swarms don’t make it through their first winter.  We also have the commercial industry as a gauge.  Even with all the feeding and treating they do they still are running a 40-50% loss rate annually and have for the last 10 years in the US.  Loss is to be expected and hopefully learned from but as beekeepers there are things we can do in the spring to try and reduce the risk for the bees while also trying to address our concerns and increase our awareness. A lot of that has to do with when we do our initial early spring inspection.

Inspect the Outside

Start by learning as much as you can from the outside of the hive and entrance over a few days and weeks in the late winter or early spring while the temps and conditions are fluctuating and you are waiting for the right days.

• Have you seen bees outside the hive on a sunny day? Are they taking that brief opportunity to do an orientation or cleansing flight? This awareness alone can help you feel more at peace about your bees.
• Are they cleaning house and pulling out dead bees? What do you see on the bottom board or at the entrance? Are there cappings?
• What is the overall condition of the outside of the hive? Do you see cracks, moisture, discoloring, etc.?

Right Time, Weather and Wind

Keep your eye on your monthly weather forecast for your location.  Remember, it’s not about others getting into their hives.  It’s about when you should get into your hives that is important.  Weather in late winter and early spring can change on a dime so being prepared is key to your success and in reducing the risk to the colony.  Here is what you are looking for:

• 3 warm days in a row. I suggest these days should be consistently in the 60’s to low 70’s.  That will likely be the best you will get in an area like mine in late March. Your forecasted weather will be based on your location.
• You also are looking for these days to have warmer than normal night time temperatures. I would like these to be in the 50’s or warmer. You might ask, why am I worried about night time temperatures?  Aren’t I doing the inspection during the day when it’s warm?  Yes, and that warm day is certainly important but you are likely going to break all the propolis seals while inspecting and cold temperatures at night wouldn’t allow those cracks to seal back up opening the colony to the cold and loss of valuable heat and humidity that is critical at this stage for any early brooding they might have started.
• Low winds are another important condition to search for in the forecast. Wind can strip the heat and humidity from the colony within minutes during your inspection. Keep the frames in the hive as much as possible. This is something you may not mentally be conscious of as you are pulling frames to look at resources, small brood patches, worker bee condition, or even inspecting the bottom debris.  You could accidentally expose eggs and brood to wind that results in lower temperatures that are unsafe for them.  This small early brood build up is critical to natural colonies allowing them to slowly replace aging winter bees and prepare for the race to swarm just a month or so away.

Planning for the right time, weather, and wind will ensure that you’ve done the best you can for your bees when opening up their home.  It’s not about you it’s about the colony.

Proof of Life

Remember that this is just the first inspection.  It doesn’t replace later inspections when it makes more sense, and it is safer to spend more time in the hive.  This is a quick “proof of life” inspection only.  It may also be an important opportunity to put in a frame of honey if they need it and you have it available.  I always try to keep a few frames of honey from my winter prep in a storage tub over the winter in a cool place.  It’s always better to have some and not need it than the opposite.

Preparation

Prior to getting into the hive, I believe it’s always important, no matter the time of year, to prepare the best you can.  Success with your bees will be the combination of preparation, observation, and a slow and steady process. So, what do we need to do to be prepared:

• Take time to clean your equipment before the inspection and ensure everything works.
• Plan what and how you want to inspect before getting into the hive.
• Set an amount of time and stick to it. Use an alarm on your watch or phone if you need to.
• Ensure you have the tools and materials you need to get in once and get out. You don’t want to think about something after walking away from the hive and then get into them again to finish what you had forgotten.
• Have a tub or hive box ready with extra frames of honey. It will also be helpful if you have the need to pull out extra frames to possibly reduce space for a smaller colony than you had when you winter prepped.  This smaller space could make it easier for the colony to maintain the proper temperatures and humidity for the start of the spring brood.

What to Check

Here is a list of the things I check for when completing my early spring inspection of a hive:

• Is the colony alive? Seems obvious, right, but it’s not just having a few bees on the comb. Beginning with the divider board I look for bees, the amount, and determine what work they are doing.  For a living colony you will likely see more bees on each frame as you get closer to the brood center.  It’s very possible you will find a small patch of brood and a queen getting back to work after the winter break.  She is usually easy to see at this time of the year because of the smaller colony size.  Once I find any sign of brood I tend to stop and close everything back up as tightly as I can, ensuring I haven’t left any obvious gaps between frames or the divider board.  They are alive and have brood!
• What is the general colony size based on the number of frames with bees and the percent coverage.  My experience is that the colonies will be smaller than you remember from the fall but in nature small colonies are normal.  At this point I make a decision, do they still need the frame count I left them in the fall, or would they benefit from removing one or more outside frames to basically cozy up the space for them?  I can always put those frames back in later.  Your decision may be based on your experience over the years, but I tend to favor smaller than larger spaces at this time of year.
• Determining the amount of honey they have remaining and its location.  This can tell you a lot about the hive.  I usually determine this only from the divider board side knowing that if honey is left here, they will likely have some on the other side of brood by the entrance, so I don’t need to break the brood frames apart.  This can help you decide if your winter prep process needs to be modified.  It can also tell you about your hive and how well insulated it is.  So, ask yourself, do they need more honey for the next month based on what they have left and have consumed for the last 4 months?
• If you encounter capped brood quickly look around the cells on the edges to determine if there are eggs and/or larvae.  You will hopefully also see the queen, but eggs are a sure sign she’s there.  For natural beekeepers who don’t feed, don’t be discouraged if at this time there is only a small patch of brood.  This is natural this time of the year and she will continue to work every day for you to surprise you the next time you get into the hive.
• Don’t forget to look at the condition of the workers.  How do they look and how are they moving over the comb.  Do you see any waggle dancing to indicate they’ve found some possible foraging?  Do you see deformed wings? Do they give you the sense they are well fed and in good condition?
• Don’t forget to look at the overall hive condition while you’re inside.  You haven’t been here for 4 months, and you should try and determine if your hive system with its lid, divider board and insulation performed the way you wanted it to.  Do you see any signs of mold anywhere and if so where and possibly where did the moisture come from.  Also check what part of the bottom you can see for debris and any dead bees.

Okay, that was a lot and highlights the importance of being prepared if you’re trying to get this done in 10-15 minutes at the most.  Just remember that once you’ve seen enough, then it’s enough and close the hive.  The safer you keep them at this inspection the less you will worry about it over the next few weeks when a possible cold snap hits.

Dead Outs

You will have a dead out (colonies that have died) at some point or another in your beekeeping journey.  Maybe even every year.  It’s not fun and could even be a disheartening moment where you might question beekeeping in general, but we all need to remember that every beekeeper has had one or more dead outs.  It’s natural, it’s common, and something that we can learn a lot from if we take the time. This is the time to settle yourself and complete a deep and thoughtful inspection of the hive to learn as much as you can.  It may even inform you of your winter preparations so you can do an even better job for this fall’s colonies.

• Remember that each dead out can happen for a different reason. Colonies are different. If you have more than one dead out maybe you can space them over a couple days to try not to rush. They aren’t going anywhere. It’s common that once a dead out is determined beekeepers just want to store frames and clean out the hive quickly.  This is understandable.  Who wants to spend time standing around a dead colony, especially when it might be cold out.
• Yes, I did mention that it might be cold. Once you’ve done your proof of life inspections on a warm day and determined the colony is dead you could simply close the hive and entrance (stop any robbing) leaving it for some other time to really inspect and do a thorough cleaning. Waiting for another day won’t hurt them.  I often just close them and come back in a day or so when I have the tools I need for this type of work.  I won’t need gloves, so a phone camera is great to have, maybe a note pad, a 6” plastic paint scraper is helpful, your hive tool, and a tub or container if I have a number of frames to remove.  IMPORTANT: Remember to freeze any frames from a dead out for 24-48hrs to ensure you don’t introduce something into a living colony later.

Take Your Time!  You’re Not In A Rush

Here are some of the things I look for and take pictures and notes about as I inspect and clean a dead out:

• Is the hive empty or containing less than a handful of dead bees in the bottom? Could they have absconded prior to the start of winter?
• Is the number of dead bees in the bottom representative of the colony size you saw during your winter prep? Did they start dying off in the fall? Was the Queen failing? Could she have been killed maybe during the winter prep process?
• Are the bees spread across the bottom under all the frames? Could the bees have been sick (viruses, disease, nosema)?
• Is there a pile in one spot under where they clustered? Consider the location so you can investigate the insulation in that area? Any idea why they picked that spot? Does it look like they worked their way upward through all the available honey? Should you leave brood frames in your winter prep that have more honey above the brood area?
• If there is a dead cluster on the comb, how close is any available honey? Is it above them or next to them?  Did the cluster die from starvation?
• Are there any honey stores left? Where in relations to the dead bees? Did you leave enough honey close to them? Did you leave too many empty brood frames in relation to the colony size which may have kept them from reaching available stores?
• Is there mold and where? Is there mold on the underside of the lid? Where and why might moisture have formed there? Remember that mold on the dead bees is normal and is not an issue.  Are there openings or cracks that need to be sealed next fall? Were your frame headrails tight together?  Was your divider board tight against the last frame.  Did you use an insulation sheet against the outside of your divider board.  If you used a wool pillow, is it wet and moldy?
• Do you see any pests? Was the colony overrun by SHB or moths?
• Are honey stores robbed out? You can tell this by the ruff and torn edges of the honey capping. You would also see bits of comb below the frame and likely bits around the entrance on the outside.  Was the colony weak in the fall and so got robbed out before winter or early spring?   If they were robbed out, they also may have killed your queen and the colony simply diminished and dead after that.
• What do you smell? Learn to judge your colonies by smell throughout the year. If you have any honey frames with nectar still in them, you may smell a sweet, fermented odor kind of like spilt beer.  I would suggest freezing these frames before giving them to another colony to try and kill any bacteria that might cause stomach issues in the receiving colony later.  If you extract any of this honey you would want to spin out the nectar first and use it for something else before extracting the capped honey.  You might also see a white coloring in the nectar cells.  In a honey frame this is likely crystallization happening while if you see this in a brood frame it might be varroa feces.
• Remember to take pictures when you go. Your phone camera is a great assistant later when you make plans for your next winter prep.  The photos also give you an opportunity to take a picture of an area you may not be able to reach such as the bottom.  This way you can zoom in on the bottom later to inspect the debris.

Notes are also good to take.  The environment outside the hive is something I would suggest including in your inspection.  Should you have added a wind break?  Is the area very wet?  Was the winter colder this year or did you have a severe cold snap?  Is your hive insulation enough?

My hope is that the information above can help guide you through your first year’s inspections or become additions to what you normally do after years of beekeeping experience.  Remember we are all trying to do our best for our bees and our hobby offers us a unique opportunity to learn and grow each year.  Enjoy your bees and your hobby.