I got an “A” on my bees!
Twenty days after setting up and installing two hives, two weeks earlier than we planned, Dale and I went out to check on their progress. Before he arrived, I did a quick visual pass of my own, just watching the entrances. I was looking for anything out of the ordinary, and what I found was a happy surprise: a steady stream of bees moving in and out of both hives. That kind of traffic is exactly what you want to see this early on.
Dale approached the hive with a smoker. Smoke has a calming effect on bees, so he puffed a little around the outside first, lifted the lid, then sent a gentle cloud across the top to coax the bees down into the box. Once they settled, he eased out a frame for inspection.
What we saw was encouraging. Both sides of the frame were dotted with capped cells. This is where the queen lays her eggs and the worker bees seal each one under a thin wax cap. Beekeepers call this brood, and brood on both sides of a frame is a very good sign that the colony is building the way it should.
The gestational cycle of a honeybee is about 21 days, though we did not know exactly when our queen started laying. Our best guess was that the first eggs would hatch soon.
Spotting a queen cell and reading the comb
We also noticed a queen cell being built. Each hive houses only one queen at a time. If something happens to her, if she weakens, ages, or falls ill, the bees follow their instinct to raise a replacement by building a queen cell. It is one of the more fascinating things to witness as a new beekeeper, and a reminder of how self-correcting a healthy colony can be.
Tucked between the frames, we found some oddly shaped comb known as “burr comb.” This is the arbitrary bridge-work bees build between frames, or between a frame and the floor or lid of the hive. We spotted some around the wooden queen box too, which is used to install the queen. Bees have a strong instinct to fill in awkward gaps and incorporate any wooden parts into their living space, and sometimes a frame that is set back even slightly out of place will invite it. If you want the full picture of why this happens, our guide to understanding bee space breaks down the exact spacing bees prefer. We removed the burr comb we found and moved on.
Adding a super ahead of schedule
By now it was week three since we set up the hives, and the colonies were strong. When bees store honey down in the brood area, it is meant for them to eat through the fall and winter months. Finding honey in the brood later in summer is another marker of a thriving hive. Because the brood was so healthy and abundant, we decided to add a “super” to each hive two weeks ahead of our original plan.
A super looks a lot like a brood box, sliding in like a drawer, and it comes in two sizes. We installed the smaller of the two, since it is easier to handle. Honey gets heavy fast, and a full deep super is a serious lift. Between the brood box and the super we placed a “queen excluder,” a screen with one job: to keep the queen down in the brood so she does not lay eggs up in the honey. Everything above that excluder is reserved for the honey we will eventually harvest.
These particular hives came together from Dale’s collection of spare parts, including frames with comb that was already drawn out. That detail mattered more than I realized at the time. If I had started with a brand-new kit, the bees would have spent this whole first season just building comb, and we would not have collected any honey this year. With the comb already drawn, the only job left for the bees was to fill it, ready for us to collect during the honey harvest.
We only harvest varietal honey from our own farm, so for many of our monofloral jars we partner with ethical, small-scale beekeepers across the country. You can browse them all in our Eastern Shore Honey collection.
Dale also taught me an old beekeeper’s trick on this visit. He set up a super with frames full of older, unprocessed honey to feed the bees through the summer. Beyond keeping them fed, this can also help prevent “robbing,” where aggressive bees from another colony try to muscle in on a neighboring hive.
A few lessons from this visit
- Honeybees build wax nests from pollen and wax; wasps build paper nests from chewed wood fiber.
- Heat, ants, and other pests can make bees defensive, and defensive bees are more likely to sting.
- Black specks on loose larvae can be a sign of Varroa mites, so it is worth knowing what to look for.
- A productive hive can produce a meaningful amount of surplus honey in a good season, which is part of what makes the work so rewarding.
FAQs About Checking a New Beehive
How soon after installing a hive should you do your first inspection?
Many beekeepers do an early visual check within the first couple of weeks, then a frame-by-frame inspection around two to three weeks in. On this visit we opened the hives twenty days after installation. The goal early on is simply to confirm the queen is laying and the colony is settling in, without disturbing the bees more than necessary.
What does brood on a frame tell you?
Brood is the area of capped cells where the queen has laid eggs and the workers have sealed them under wax. Finding brood on both sides of a frame is a reassuring sign that the queen is active and the colony is developing as it should.
What is burr comb, and should you remove it?
Burr comb is the extra, irregular comb bees build to bridge gaps between frames or fill awkward spaces in the hive. Beekeepers usually scrape it away during inspections so frames stay easy to lift and examine. It often appears when a frame is set back slightly out of place or when equipment does not fit together precisely.
What is a queen excluder for?
A queen excluder is a screen placed between the brood box and the super. Its openings are sized to let worker bees pass through but keep the larger queen below, so she stays in the brood area and does not lay eggs up in the honey frames.
Why add a super early?
A super gives bees extra room to store honey. When a colony is strong and the brood area is full, adding a super ahead of schedule gives the bees space to keep working rather than feeling crowded, which can otherwise prompt them to swarm.
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