I'm writing this for a dear chat friend Mirandaok. She is the only other person I chat with concerning Tai Chi, Yoga, out of body experiences and meditation. But I know that many other people wish to work closer to their bees WITHOUT the need for excessive sting protection. There is more to hive inspection than ripping them apart and looking for a queen, eggs or honey stores. Here it try to make a unique kind of Beekeeper out of you. I like to call it the Tai Chi of Beekeeping. 

It's more of a metaphysical experience than just simply inspection the hives. I have often done practice inspections using empty hives and frames. Carefully honing the proper way to inspect your hives. Here is my method, practice it until you feel comfortable at it. Then, remove your hood and put on simple safety eye ware. Only go as far as you feel safe with. That is why I suggest you use this method. Or at least something that you feel comfortable with that is similar.
 
 

Keep in mind the following. It is highly recommended that you inspect the colonies on warm and sunny days. The reason: the bees will be busy foraging and a large percentage of bees will be away from the hive. Also, keep to the back or the side of the entrance. Staying directly in front of the entrance will on cause the bees to constantly bump into you as they exit and return to the hive.

After placing all your tools within reach, light the smoker as described above and send several slow puffs of smoke into the entrance of the hive. Wait a minute and repeat this process.  Next remove the outer lid and shoot smoke into the hole in the inner cover. Again wait a minute and bellow smoke into the entrance and inner cover. After a minute or two remove the inner cover using the hive tool.

Lets assume your colonies are only one deep super in size, meaning your eggs cells, honey stores and queen are all in one single box. This way we can use the most caution when approaching the hive. If you have multi-level boxes, the upper boxes are filled with honey frames and other food sources.  A general observation of bee count and overall frame or box weight will give you a good idea on the food stores of this upper box.

The lower boxes are where the brood is found and these boxes are our main concern during inspection. Remove any upper honey box or boxes and set them aside. You should now be looking into the heart of the colony, the brood box.

Inspection of the Colony.

Your bees should be fat and happy and flying about doing their thing. Occasionally you'll get a worker with an attitude who will hound you to death, never stinging you, but flying in your face. Ignore her or go away a few minutes and she'll give buzzing you. Remember, this is your hobby, take your time and enjoy the progress or learn from the problems of your hives.

Using your hive tool loosen a frame toward the center. I like to do this, because it allows me to move two frames after this one is removed instead of one, as would be the case if you were working toward the outside of the box.

Slowly remove the center frame using your gloved hand or frame grabber.  Let the bees move down into the open space and crawl onto the frames in the box. A large number of bees will remain on the frame in your hand. They will be busy, adjusting to the bright sunlight and the new orientation of the moving frame. Turn so that the sun is behind you and be careful not to breathe directly on the frame. In the hive your breath and a direct breeze is very foreign to the bees and will cause them to alert.

Look at the frame as a whole. In the corners may be pollen, which are yellow, orange or red filled cells. This is very normal. Also, you may see honey or propolis and even stored water. These are all normally stored products in the hive. The bees keep these food sources near-by for both easy access and for insulation.

Now look toward the center of this frame. Since we removed this frame from the middle of the hive, it is probably a brood frame, filled with egg cells, larva or covered cappings, all filled with developing bees at various stages. The pattern of cells should be uniform and an over all oval pattern of egg cells should cover this frame.
 

Eggs and queen hunting

The single most miraculous experience you will feel in this hobby is when you look deep into the cells and see the freshly laid eggs. These ultra white comma sized eggs hang upside down from the cells bottom. It is at this point that you know that your queen is probably still alive and well. Eggs hatch in 5 days, so she was alive within the last 5 days.

A good egg laying oval pattern is a good sign of a healthy queen who is able to easily lay eggs in each cell that she inspects and also is taking orders from the workers who are directing her in general egg laying areas.

An out right hunt for the queen is a dangerous thing. Only in the respect that the more you handle your frames, the greater chance that you'll squash her in the process. The Royal Court is very conscience of your inspection and some beekeepers claim that they become tolerant of it after many months of inspections.

This last thought doesn't make much sense considering that they workers on live 5 weeks during the normal season when you would be inspecting. The overlapping of generations of bees would only see you rip apart their home 4 times IF you inspected every week, so I doubt if they actually get use to you.

Lets get in to it. I think of inspection as a metaphysical adventure. By going through the steps mentioned above with slow, purposeful movement, you can make an enjoyable flight through a honeybees world. I'm going to get heavy, but I think many people will find there way to this page through search engines looking for Tai Chi. This is for you folks.

I have been doing tai chi exercise for many years, using my own style that I call Free Styling. It's more a mental openness than a desire to perfect. It's not actual formed movements,as is standard taught Tai Chi: more so, it is a fluid movement adventure as you zoom in to the honeybees world. 

I often observe the bees from only inches away and it is amazing what you can see. I always wear simple swimming glasses or goggles to protect my eyes, otherwise I am wearing a loose fitting long sleeved shirt and long pants. But I always protect my eyes. Getting stung on your legs is a bummer. I always wear long pants which are also loose. If a bee stings through your long, loose pants, you'll simply pull at the material and the bee and stinger will pull free.

I always setup my tools so that they are nearby and at waist height. No need bending any more than necessary. I Place a 32 inch square 3/4" thick plywood sheet on top of a large plastic garbage can placed in the upright position.  I also stack one or two empty supers nearby so that I can stack filled supers up at aist height. Reduce all your bending by having a makeshift workbench and stacked supers makes you Tai Chi experience all the better. If you can move easily from task to task, without bending - you will have less distractions.

The Secret here is to attempt to smoothly move from one task to another, with as little actual stopping as possible. A good example follows, but lets just say that you are a body and spirit in motion. The two can since with each other if you can freely escape the idea that the brain is in charge. I don't enjoy repetitive motion, rather I think of AHEAD of each step of the hive inspection, planning each move like a chess game or a road rally. You need to mentally fly from step to step, shifting weight and thinking of the weight as small air plane flying freely through you and even out away from the body, which is really the goal here.

You really want to think of Tai Chi and even my free style Tai Chi as a mastery of telling the  physical body that your spiritual body has a voice of it's own and that it is EQUALLY as capable of manifesting in order for you to both control it and also enjoy it as it plays on it's own. It a very realistic feeling to to the Chi energy away from the body and feeling it fly 20 feet away and then flying back through the body and around elsewhere. Think of a magnetic field, with true weight and tension and elasticity and springy movement. It's as real as the physical feelings we have honed all our lives. We are taught to develop 5 senses and everything else is voodoo and mumbo jumbo. We'll, that is our loss, because humans are way more capable of experiencing it's potential through such exercises and it is a wonderfully relaxing event.
 

A voyage into the Meditative Tai Chi world of Beekeeping.

Finally, let's inspect a hive. It's 2 supers high with a queen excluder. I have supplied the hive with ample smoke and five minutes have passed since I first smoked the entrance. I stand about 10 feet from the hive and watch the bees coming and going. I use a simple formula that a friend taught me, I count the bees coming and going for ONE minute. He said multiply the number times 1000 and you will have a rough idea of the total bee count.

I stand there looking at the hive, focusing at the entrance, almost zooming with my eyes and studying the traffic. I breath deeply into my abdomen through my nose and slowly focus on the feel of my breathing, feel the rise of my chest and the expansion of my stomach. I try NOT to breath through my mouth until later, It's a way of using air and the experience of breathing as a catalyst to shoot you deeper into the experience itself.

I slowly walk toward the hive, looking out my glasses as if they were a camera lens and my body is the camera dolly, panning and moving as smoothly as a helicopter choreographed to a fine work of mozart. If you think of this as a movie that you are watching and interacting with, the sooner you will become seamless with experience.

Approaching the hive

As you approach the hive, slowly move in with your arms in front of you. You want the bees to see your arms as early as possible. No need the all of a sudden being scared by flaring arms. Squat down to the side of the hives entrance, about 3 feet away. Never stand in front of the hive blocking the entrance during your inspect. I prefer the rear but that is not always possible. Balance your weight and experience the squatting position as you meditatively watch the bees. Look for pollen on the legs of the returning workers. Colored sacs of bright orange, yellow and red. Look for dead bees at the entrance and dead bees on the ground. Look for normal hive activity, if something appears out of place, remember it for your log. Slowly stand and again breathing deeply and prepare to watch yourself inspect the hive.

Lift off the inner cover and slowly place it on top of the stacked empty supers. Shifting your weight, studying the way weight and balance move through your body and be as fluid as possible. You are doing a ballet of sorts. Always observe yourself as if Out of Body and you will be on the right track.

Either by using your hands or by using the frame grabber, pull a few frames from the upper box, which should be honey storage only, egg cells will be in the lower box. I mentioned earlier that we are using a queen excluder which is used to keep the queen in the lower box. This is a real handy device for easily maintaining a colony and I recommend a queen excluder.

Pull several frames out, checking to see how much honey your hive has. This of course varies with seasonal changes, how much you've collected for your own use. You can also use a bathroom scale for measuring how much honey you have. Set a brick on the scale and use a hive box sized 3/4" plywood sheet. Place them on the scale, readjust it to zero, then place the super on top of the plywood and log the weight. Otherwise, just mentally.  Note: that a full frame is about 12 pounds.

Getting On in There...

I slowly raise a frame so that it about 1 foot from my face. I want the sun behind me and I want to raise the frame so that the sun shines all the way to the bottom of every cell. Never BREATHE right on to the bees, they will take off and likely sting you. I am always conscience of my breathing and the roll my physical body is playing. I try to anticipate my next move and slowly move toward it in a mechanical, yet fluid fashion.

I look deep into the cells, looking at pollen, propolis ( Resin from trees, used as hold insulation ) and water or eggs or larva. What ever type of frame, whether it is egg cells, larva or just solid honey - I always pay attention to what is in the cells. I closely Look for dead bees, irregular laying patterns of eggs by the queen, mites, wax moth, invadator insects, drone count and Other stuff. The inspection is a very important thing and perfect for tai Chi exercise.

Place your protected eyes about 8 inches OR your minimum focus length and pause to let bees regain their footing and they return to bee work. Slowly move your hands from side to side letting the frame move under your vision and carefully, methodically inspect each hive or area of cells. After looking along an entire side, slowly rotate the frame to see the opposite side. The easiest way to turn the frame when using TWO HANDS to hold it is to just flip the bottom over the top ( rotate the frame with a flip of BOTH wrists. Again, let the bees get use to NOW being upside down.

Again look at this side of the frame as you did with the first side. Look at several key frames in the honey box and look at many of the frames in the EGG LAYING bottom super. The queen excluder is marvelous in keeping your queen ( thus eggs, larva and pupa ) in the lower box. Keeping ALL honey in the upper box. I really recommend a good queen excluder.
 

In the EGG LAYING ( Brood ) Super

Once you have looked at and returned the honey frames back to the super, place it aside and get ready to inspect the Brood Chamber. This is the most interesting part of beekeeping. Let me try to explain the things you need to do in detail.

At hands length look at the frame and you should see an OVAL PATTERN in the middle of the frame where the queen laid eggs. You will see in that oval space covered cells, larva and if you look DEEP into the cell, you will see the tiny eggs, hanging at the bottom of the cell. It is about the size of a COMMA. You should see lots of each in a good healthy hive. 

Look and mentally note how many drones are on the frame. Drones are fat, happy and STINGLESS male bees and should be in relatively SMALL NUMBERS in the hive. Only a few hundred at best in the entire hive.

I suggest you have your queens marked. I don't mark my swarm queens, but I do my surviving queens after a Wintering. I do though plan to mark future queens JUST to make my photography a bit more enjoyable.

It's NOT unusual to NOT see the queen during your inspection. If you do it's always fun to watch her march around. I often see the queen inspecting the empty cell and then dip her abdomen into the cell and lay an egg there. If you don't see her, just make sure you DID see eggs or larva. If you do, the queen was alive just a few days ago and is probably fine.

More Later