Question about doing inspections

[drobbins]

Hello All,
one of the things I'm doing is trying to move away from deep boxes
as part of this process, this Saturday, I pulled a frame out of a deep, shook the bee's off it, carried it to the house, and cut it down to a medium. I then used it as bait in a newly introduced medium that was full of frames with SC starter strips. So I was left with the bottom part of the frame. looking at it closely I noticed it had larvea in it. It had only been in the hive 2 weeks and I wasn't aware she had laid in it yet. Well now, 2 days later, the larvea are turning black, obviously dead.
SO, the question.
if you pull a frame out during an inspection, how long can you mess with it without killing the brood on it?
I'm also trying to regress to small cell and I'd like to cary a frame to the house and take measuments and do close inspection.
The bee's are near the house, can I pull a frame out for 30 minutes and then put it back without hurting it?
I had kinda thought I'd have to wait till fall when they stop raising brood to do a detailed inspection, is that true??

Dave

[Michael Bush]

>if you pull a frame out during an inspection, how long can you mess with it without killing the brood on it?

It depends on how cold it is.  The first thing to kill them is being chilled.  This happens quickly at 50 F compared to 70 F.  Usually they are covered with bees and the bees are adding heat, so it takes a while.

>The bee's are near the house, can I pull a frame out for 30 minutes and then put it back without hurting it?

30 minutes at 70 F, maybe.  If it's reasonably warm then the next issue is drying out.  A one day old larvae doesn't have a lot of food in it and it dries out easily.  Keeping the air calm (no fans) helps with that.

>I had kinda thought I'd have to wait till fall when they stop raising brood to do a detailed inspection, is that true??

If you want to measure cell size you just hold a ruller across ten cells and see what it measures.  You don't have to take it inside to do this.  You can buy a regular tape measure in metric/english.