First Spring Inspection
Arbeiten am Bienenstand
The hive is not opened until the cleansing flight has taken place.
The hive is not opened until the cleansing flight has taken place. Before that, an inspection can lead the bees to defecate inside the hive, which turns into dysentery. For temperature, the institutes give 10 or 12 degrees Celsius; you are on the safe side with the higher figure.
Three things are checked, and quickly: feed, queenrightness, health. By early March, at least eight kilograms of winter feed should still be present, and full food combs should be at the bee cluster. The queen does not need to be found for this; flat-capped worker brood is enough as proof. High-domed cappings on worker cells mean humped brood. Fecal spots on the combs point to dysentery or Nosema, white mummies to chalkbrood, stringy cell contents to American Foulbrood, and that is notifiable in Germany: notify the veterinary office first in that case.
Keep it short. Every check disturbs the colony, and the arrangement of the brood nest should not be thrown into disorder. It has proven useful to take the hive apart quickly first and check while reassembling it. Much becomes clear beforehand from below anyway: a varroa board soaked in cooking oil and inserted for about three days shows occupied comb spaces, feed consumption, brood, and mites, without lifting the cover. With solid bottom boards, the board is cleaned or replaced; with screened bottom boards, this is unnecessary.