I've talked in the past about how I find it important to not open a hive too often or for unnecessary purposes.
For the most part, I plan on only two mandatory internal hive inspections over the course of a season. The first on e in the Spring, late April/Early May to inspect colony strength and do splits and to add new boxes to the stack as determined by the colony strength.
The second internal inspection is at harvest time in mid to late August, depending on the weather. the purpose then is to harvest from the hive and to determine colony strength going into Fall/Winter. I may combine weak colonies at that time or re-allocate honey resources depending on what the inspection shows.
In between those two inspections, I rely on external inspections of the hive to indicate if an internal inspection is necessary. If I deem the colony healthy based on external indicators, then I will not open the hive.
How do beekeepers determine if the colony is healthy based solely on an external inspection? What exactly are we looking for that indicates a healthy colony from the outside?
The first things we will look for externally is the behavior of the colony from a distance. How are the bees behaving as you approach? If the bees start warning you from 20 feet or more distance, there is a problem and the bees are agitated. Likely something has been rousing their defensiveness. A skunk perhaps? Look for animal tracks and leavings on the ground surrounding the hives for evidence of bee pests.
If the bees do not accost you as you approach to within about a foot from the entrance, the bees are calm and there likely is no external agitation. That is a good sign.
Look at the box itself. Is it covered in mustard colored fecal spots? If so, there is likely a problem inside having to do with dysentery, nosema or another disease. Are the spots thin or thick? Dark colored or light colored? Runny or clumpy? These are all indicators of what might be the issue. If you see no spots or very few, then there seems to be no problem or an early indicator needing more investigation which could head off worse problems.
Are there bees on the ground around the hive entrance? No, then all seems well. Some dead bees is not necessarily a problem, especially in the Spring. Lots of dead bees or bees that are still moving but with issues are indicators of internal problems.
Do you see where this is going?
The bees live and work outside of the hive as much as they do inside the hive. Being aware of the sights, sounds, even smells outside of the hive can let you know all is well or if you need to investigate internally. Let the bees tell you if there is a need for an internal inspection before you just go ripping open a possibly perfectly healthy hive. We're not helping the healthy hive by opening it up unnecessarily.
A good book with many specifics about external inspections is "At The Hive Entrance" by H Storch. It provides detailed explanations of what we can see, hear and smell external of a hive and give information on what those indicators likely refer to.
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