Hive Inspection Checklist: What to Look for Every Visit
A practical hive inspection checklist for queen evidence, brood pattern, stores, pests, disease signs, space, temperament, photos, and next actions.
A good hive inspection is a structured snapshot, not a treasure hunt for every possible problem. The goal is to answer a few repeatable questions: Is the colony queenright? Is brood healthy? Are stores adequate? Is there enough space? Are pests or disease signs increasing? What needs to happen next?
Before opening the hive
Inspect only when conditions make sense: warm enough, low wind, no heavy rain, and enough daylight to work calmly. Bring the equipment you may need before the lid comes off: smoker, hive tool, extra frames or boxes, mite sampling kit, entrance reducer, notebook or phone, and a way to protect exposed supers from robbing.
Start outside. Watch the entrance for pollen coming in, normal traffic, fighting, dead bees, bearding, unusual odor, or crawling bees. These observations do not replace opening the hive, but they help you inspect with a purpose.
What to check inside
- Queen evidence: queen seen, eggs, young larvae, or a reliable recent queen event.
- Brood: eggs, larvae, capped brood, brood pattern, skipped cells, sunken caps, perforated caps, chilled or discolored larvae.
- Stores: honey, nectar, pollen, food near brood, and whether the colony feels light for the season.
- Population: frames covered with bees, whether the colony is expanding or shrinking, and whether bees cover the brood well.
- Space: open comb for laying, nectar storage space, congestion, drawn comb availability, and whether supers or brood boxes are needed.
- Swarm signs: queen cups, charged queen cells, capped queen cells, queen cell location, and whether the queen is still present.
- Pests and disease signs: Varroa trend, small hive beetles, wax moth damage, unusual debris, mites on bees, odor, or abnormal brood.
- Temperament and handling: unusually defensive, calm, runny, queenless roar, or changes from previous visits.
What to do
Do not leave the hive with only a vague note like “looks good.” Write one plain conclusion and one next action. Examples: “queenright, expanding, add super within 7 days”; “no eggs, larvae present, recheck in 5 days before requeening”; “mite count due”; “light stores, feed if no nectar flow”; “charged swarm cells, split plan needed.”
Photograph anything you may need to compare later: brood pattern, queen cells, beetle slime, wax moth webbing, deformed wings, questionable brood, or equipment damage. Photos are especially useful when asking a mentor, club, inspector, or extension office for help.
How BeeVault helps
BeeVault has a structured inspection form for inspection date, hive condition, temperament, population strength, brood pattern, honey and pollen stores, queen, eggs and larvae sightings, swarm cells, supersedure cells, disease signs, weather, notes, and photo or video attachments. The hive record also stores the last inspection date, so overdue inspections can appear in the dashboard and action-needed view.