What to look for during a beehive inspection and how often to do one

The four checks on every inspection

The UK's National Bee Unit (NBU) builds its spring inspection guidance around a short list: food, health, space and the queen, plus a spring clean of the entrance and old comb. Those four questions are a useful frame for later inspections too.

Food. Look through the combs toward the edge of the nest for visible honey and pollen. The NBU advises that a full-sized colony should have at least two to three deep British Standard frames of stores available at all times, and warns that bees can starve at any time of year.

Health and space. Check that adult bees and brood look healthy. In spring the NBU expects adult bees to cover five to ten frames, and fewer than five suggests something is wrong. For space, the NBU notes that when a colony fills its brood box and the queen runs out of cells to lay in, the colony is likely to swarm, and it suggests adding a super when bees occupy two thirds of the previous box.

Queen. You do not need to find her. The NBU's guidance is to make sure eggs and brood are present, and to check for brood in all stages and for any queen cells.

Reading the brood

Brood tells you more about the queen than a sighting does. University of Georgia Extension, in its advice on checking an established colony before you buy it, describes capped brood as tan to brown and says a good queen will have at least five or six combs of brood, laid in a solid pattern with few skipped cells.

A patchy pattern is a warning sign. University of Florida extension notes that a spotty brood pattern suggests a failing or missing queen or a colony in poor health, and that colonies with brood like that in early fall often do not survive winter.

The NBU adds two useful clues. If you see the queen but there are no eggs or brood, the colony may be short of stores, including pollen, or she may be a queen raised over winter that is unlikely to be viable. And if last year's queen was marked and you now see an unmarked one, it suggests the colony has replaced her, a process called supersedure.

Queen cups, queen cells and swarm signs

Queen cups are elongated, vertically oriented cells that bees build, typically around the edge of the comb or frame. University of Florida's swarm control publication shows the difference in a single photo: two queen cups with no larvae beside a growing queen cell with a developing larva inside. A cup with nothing in it is not the same finding as a cell being fed.

The same publication says that in a colony with a queen, swarm preparations have probably begun if numerous queen cells appear along the outer edges of the frames with larvae being actively fed. Workers cap those cells after about eight days, and once they are capped it is difficult to stop the colony from swarming. When the colony does swarm, University of Georgia Extension says the old queen leaves with up to 60 percent of the workers.

Where the cells sit gives a hint about why they are there. Florida's guidance is that supersedure cells, built when the queen dies or begins to fail, are typically at the perimeter of the brood pattern, where the youngest larvae are. It adds that there are exceptions both ways, so position is a clue rather than proof.

Crowding matters more than size. The Florida publication makes the point that it is not necessarily strong colonies that swarm but crowded ones, and it recommends watching for swarm signs about two to four weeks before the main nectar flow. In Georgia, the University of Georgia notes that many colonies are crowded by April and May.

How often to inspect, and when not to

In swarm season, the University of Florida's swarm control guidance works on a seven to nine day cycle, because new queen cells can be built and capped in about seven to ten days. A longer gap can mean the first sign you see is a capped cell.

Pick the weather. The NBU says colonies should not be inspected below 10 C (50 F), can be opened quickly between 10 and 14 C, and can be fully inspected on fine days when bees are flying freely. University of Georgia Extension, writing for a warmer climate, starts detailed inspections in mid-February on days of at least 45 F. Follow the guidance written for your region.

Winter is about weight, not frames. The NBU advises hefting hives every other week during winter to check stores, and looking inside on warmer days every two to three weeks for bees cut off from their food. It also says spring checks should not be the first visits of the year.

Common inspection mistakes

Hunting for the queen. Eggs and young brood answer the question faster. The NBU's guidance says there is no need to see her.

Not looking inside the cups. An empty cup and a cell with a larva being fed are different findings. Look inside, and note how many cells hold larvae and whether any are capped.

Relying on memory. A brood pattern that looks a little patchy means more when you can see it was solid two weeks ago. Write down what you found in each of the four checks for each hive, every time. HiveScribe is built for doing that with gloves on: tap the mic on a hive card or scan the hive's QR label, say what you see, and on-device speech recognition turns it into a log card with tags such as queen seen, brood pattern, queen cells and stores low. An inspection interval you set becomes a reminder for the next visit.

This guide covers what to observe, not how to treat pests or disease. If brood does not look healthy, the NBU's advice is to ask a mentor or your local bee inspector. For anything involving pests, treatments or medicines, follow the official guidance for your area and your local beekeeping association.

Frequently asked questions