Internal assessment of the colony
At each visit, it is important to assess the internal status of the colony, taking into consideration various aspects: the strength of the colony, the presence of the queen, the oviposition activity, the consistency of the stocks, the presence of symptoms of diseases or parasites.
Colony strength is assessed by considering how many frames are well covered by bees and how much of the available area is occupied by brood.
A strong colony in peak season must have all frames well covered with bees and at least 80 per cent of the frames with large areas of compact brood.
The quantity of pollen and honey stocks must also be carefully monitored.
The presence of the queen can be assessed either by looking for it or by checking presence of eggs in the cells. It takes 3 days for the eggs to become larvae, so if there are eggs it means that maximum 3 days earlier the queen was present (and most probably still is). At this time, even if the queen is absent, the bees are still able to set up royal cells by taking eggs for developing a new queen.
The presence of only male brood, even in worker cells, is a classic sign of the presence of a worker bee that has started laying eggs after a prolonged absence of the queen.
Oviposition activity is assessed by looking at the area occupied by the brood and its ‘quality’. Large, compact brood surfaces indicate good laying activity.
Conversely, small brood surfaces, with uneven, mosaic brood or cells with brood of distinctly different ages is an indication of poor oviposition activity.
The stock assessment is done by counting the frames with honey and pollen.
A good stock is about two frames with honey and about two half frames of pollen.
The health assessment must ascertain the absence or presence of obvious symptoms of disease or parasites.
Warnings: May depend on the regulations in force in the given country.
Please check out the B-THENET Platform for the Best Beekeeping Practices tailored to each country.
BEST PRACTICES AND INNOVATIONS FOR A SUSTAINABLE BEEKEEPING
Ongoing | 2022-2026
- Main funding source
- Horizon Europe (EU Research and Innovation Programme)
- Geographical location
- Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden