[music]
So we're going to do a colony inspection here.
We've already learned in the previous video
about "Working with Bees" how to use
the smoke and how to disassemble the hive.
Now what we'll be doing is precisely that
smoking the hive and disassembling it,
but we'll be inspecting it for all the normal
kinds of conditions that you will see within
a beehive.
So I'll puff some smoke just across
the frames there.
We've got a beautiful sunny day, the bees are in a good
mood, they're bringing in lots of nectar
from dandelion flowers, from apple blossoms,
and everything is going quite well.
We've got a nice warm day.
So we'll pry this third frame away so that we can take
the second one out, pry that one up
and then just slowly pull the frame
up out of the box.
So this frame's got lots of honey on it, which
you'll see here now.
We've got stored honey that's been stored for
quite some time,
you can see the older cappings on there,
and then we have fresh nectar in here where you
see all the shiny cells and then there is some
pollen stored in some of these cells as well,
and we can see a number of drones on the frame.
They hang out on the outer frames.
So we've got basically food resources
in this frame here.
No evidence of any eggs or larva.
So we're just going to lean that frame against the
far corner of the box like so, and then we'll move further
into the hive and inspect the hive.
There we go.
Looks like more of the same on this frame.
Basically food reserves and fresh food that they've just
put in.
Some drones, some worker bees just
working away on the frame.
There are some empty cells on this side,
but no eggs or larva,
so we'll just put that frame back in
and when we're inspecting the colony, we just
work our way frame to frame
and what we are looking for on each frame
as we pull it out we're looking for the queens
so I'll look at the next frame to see if I
see her on there, then I'll look at this side of the
frame and I don't see her there, but
we can now see something different, we've got
drone pupa here.
So these are drone sized cells,
the larger cells you can see some empty drone
cells right in here and then when they are
in use with the pupa they are quite bulged out,
so we can recognize that they're very different
looking than the worker pupa,
which we'll see momentarily.
Lots of pollen in this frame,
tons of pollen in there.
So we'll just put that frame back in.
I do see eggs on this side of the frame and to see eggs
you really need to clear bees out of the way,
so if I lay my my hand on there all the bees
will run out of the way and then we are able
to see into the cells underneath and to see
those eggs you'll hold the frames so the sunlight
is shining directly into the bottom of the cells
and you have to tip the frame a little bit this way,
a little bit that way until those eggs
show themselves at the bottom of the cells.
OK, so back to the frame handling here.
We'll set that frame back into the box,
pry the next frame over
and we should be getting into a little bit more brood
in this frame.
I'll look for the queen on the next frame.
Don't see her there
so we'll look for the queen on this side of the frame
and I don't see her.
OK so now what we have here we have worker larva
and worker pupa.
See the caps of the pupa are slightly domed,
but they don't bulge out like the drone pupa do.
So we have worker larva and worker pupa.
this will be all eggs and young larva
in this area here.
We can see pollen all around the periphery
and a little dome of honey at the top.
A mix of workers and drones, it's a good healthy
growing colony.
And we'll move on to the next frame.
As you pry the frames just hold on to them
so they don't snap free sending vibrations
through the hive.
OK we'll look at the next frame for the queen.
Don't see her.
We'll look at this side of the frame for the queen
and I don't see her.
Well this frame is kind of a mess.
It's got some holes in it that the bees have filled
up with drone pupa.
They do need drones, it's normal that they
are raising drones so it doesn't hurt to have
the odd frame that's like this.
But there we can see side by side drone pupa
and worker pupa.
Worker pupa have the flat capped cells and the
drone the big bulgy cells there.
When the weather is warm like this today the frames
are a little easier to take out because the propolis
isn't as brittle and the wax is softer
and so it is a little bit easier
to dismantle the hive.
So we'll look at the next frame for the queen,
don't see her there.
This would be a good spot to find her because there's
lots of open comb where she could be laying eggs
it's within the brood area.
OK there she is, just where we thought she might be.
See how she likes to go around to get to the
dark side of the frame?
If she can find an opening to move through, she'll
go around to where it's shaded there
and so it's often easy to miss finding the
queen because she has done just that.
I'm going to turn the frame over and we'll see now
that she is on this side here.
So just to keep the queen safe I'm going to put her
in a cage and I'll show you a video about that
a little later but for now we'll just put this frame
back in the colony
and temporarily cage the queen
so we can carry on with our inspection.
So
on this frame we have
capped pupa and then larva off to the side
and some pollen stored here.
I even see some pollen from horse chestnut.
It's a bright red colour so there's quite a variety of
different colours of pollen this time of year.
So we just move through frame by frame
inspecting the colony and we are wanting
to see that everything looks normal.
If a colony is preparing to swarm we'd be looking
for queen cells.
We're always keeping an eye out for any sorts
of diseases.
We might see chalk brood for example or sac brood
or heaven forbid American fowl brood, so you do
need to be looking through the colony to inspect it
on a pretty regular basis to make sure that none
of those diseases are present.
So just one more frame of brood here.
The outside frame in the box is usually honey,
but we've got a nice capped frame of brood here,
lots of brood there
and then the last frame will be food reserves.
So we've got lots of pollen
lots of honey fresh nectar in there and you can see
this is where the drones are all hanging out near
the outside edge of the cluster.
We have lots and lots of drone.
So now that we're done our inspection, it's
just a matter of moving the frames back into place.
Now what we'd be doing is releasing the queen
and closing the colony back up.
The next video we are going to show
we'll be talking about supering this colony
because it is ready to be adding a honey super.
So stay tuned for that.