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Inspect or not. Answer is very simple: you inpect when needed
I have known 30 years a lady near my cottage - 5 km away, And she nurse her 10 hives so that she add boxes, but not much do any real inspections, like queen cells, more room, extract anf give room. And no swarming control tasks. No queen breeding. Just swarming queens.
She lost most of the colonies every summer when 2 swarms went to tree tops. And she does not live in his cottage and is not all the time watching swarms. She got only some swarms back.
Reason is that she has no muscles enough to lift heavy langstroth boxes. It is common among lady beekeepers.
I retired and I thought that I have time to help in her jobs:
- look in spring, that hive and brooding is OK, and take too much winter food away
- clip queen wings
- follow swarming fever = queen cells
- if queen cells, make false swarm
- unite later false swarm and brood hive
- take care that brood hive does not swarm
- add boxes in order: brood boxes, added empty boxes and then honey boxes with stuff
- give foundation boxes to draw (2 boxes a year, about)
- take capped honey off, and move empty frames over the brood-
- cleaning the whole hive if it has too much rippen honey, like 3 boxes
- queenless hives, or angry hives: give a new mated queen
and so on........
Now, during 3 last years she have got 60-80 kg honey. Her hives are so tall that she need ladder to nurse them.
Bees are really calm, compared to 5 y ago. Every angry queen will be flat, when she notices the problem
She get a good money from that honey. She is mere smile.
She feed the hives well herself and add thymol for varroa. The yeard goes well.
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T