Why early detection matters
“Is my hive failing?” is a question that keeps new beekeepers up at night. You know early detection is important, so you have the best chance at saving your hive. Once a hive is unhealthy, it declines quickly. But how do you tell when a hive is failing?
Unfortunately, beginning beekeepers often miss the early warning signs. In this article, I will share exactly what to look for to know if your hive is failing.
How to Tell if Your Hive Is Healthy: Complete Beginner Guide
Complete Hive Inspection Guide
The most common signs of an unhealthy hive
Spotty or irregular brood pattern
A spotty brood pattern looks like someone took a shotgun to the frame and just smattered eggs and larvae in the cells haphazardly. The cells are not clustered together at all.
If your queen is young and just started laying, then a spotty brood pattern is acceptable. She still has to figure out how to lay correctly.
To learn more about honey bee health, check out this page.
No eggs or young larva
No eggs or young larva signal that your queen has not been laying. She could be failing, have died, the bees could be replacing her, called supercedure, or the hive could have swarmed (if the numbers have drastically dwindled this is usually the case) and the new queen isn’t laying yet. (If the hive swarmed, just check back in a week or two to see if you see eggs.)
If eggs should be present (spring, summer and fall) and you don’t see any eggs or larva, I’d check the hive again in four days to a week. Sometimes it’s easy to miss them. If there are still no eggs or larva, give them a frame of eggs and comma shaped larva from another hive ensuring that there is no queen on the frame! They can raise their own queen this way, if in fact they are queenless.
Low population or sudden drop in bees
A hive’s numbers will naturally fluctuate with the seasons. In spring, they build up, they are at their peak in the summer, and will decline in the fall.
If you notice a sudden drop in numbers, your bees may have swarmed. When this happens, the bees will take about half the population and the current queen and fly away to start a new colony. Virgin queens or queen cells will be left behind to sustain the old colony.
A swarm is a natural process beekeepers usually try to avoid by preventative splitting. Your bees are weaker once they have swarmed, but there is no “fix”, because it is a natural process, and the bees are equipped to handle it.
If all the adult bees leave the hive, this is called absconding. It can also be called collapse. This rare phenomenon is not fully understood but scientists, but at this point there is nothing that can be done to save the colony.
Aggression or unusual behavior
Bees sting to defend their hive. They usually have twelve to sixteen guard bees stationed to alert the hive of danger and sting predators. If they are unusually testy, this could be the sign of many things.
The bees could be unusually aggressive because they’ve been dealing with predators or because they are queenless. A queen’s pheromones calm them. They could also be aggressive because of them being Africanized. Changing queens will change the whole hive’s behavior.
If the bees are making a loud roaring sound, this is another indication something is wrong. Usually there is no queen when they roar.
Excessive debris or dead bees
Some pollen, cappings, and dead bees at the entrance are normal. If these begin to build up, that could be a sign of a bigger problem. Especially excess cappings can indicate either robbing behavior or starvation.  When the bees recklessly tear into the caps this shows something unhealthy is happening.
Visible pests or damage
When you can see a pest, this is never a good sign. By the time you can see something is wrong, it is usually very wrong. If you see varroa on bees, tunnels going through the comb (wax moths), or slimy trails on frames (small hive beetles) it is time to step in and intervene using whatever method you are comfortable with. Beekeeping supply companies carry treatments to deal with each of these.
Lack of food reserves
If you see empty frames and less than two frames of honey, it is time to feed your bees. If there is no pollen in the frames, this is also a red flag, and could be a good time to add a season appropriate pollen patty. If the bees are acting frantic, this indicates you need to get to the root cause of it, which could be starvation. Feeding when it is unnecessary is better than risking starvation if you are unsure.
Seasonal context: what’s normal vs not
In the spring you should expect rapid growth, in summer, your bees will reach peak population, and in fall they will reduce the amount of brood they raise. In the winter, they will cluster. Interpret your findings through the lense of what is seasonally expected.
When to intervene (and when to wait)
Immediate action is needed when a hive is starving. At that point, the best thing you can do for them is to feed them. In the spring and summer feed a 1:2 ratio of sugar to water, and in fall feed a 1:1 ratio. In winter feed a pollen patty, fondant, or dry sugar.
If you suspect a queen issue, give them a frame of young larvae with many in the “comma” or egg stage, and they can fix most problems on their own. Inspect very carefully in another week to see if there are emergency queen cells. If there are, then the hive is fixing its problem on its own. You can also wait this out for about a week and see if you still see signs of a failing queen and take action at that point.
If you see one of the pests, immediate treatment is the best option.
If you feel like you’re in over your head, it’s a great idea to ask for a second opinion. As new beekeepers, it’s often hard to identify something the first time you see it.
Complete Guide to Hive Management
Final thoughts: you’ll get better at reading your bees
Understanding what is wrong with your bees can be challenging at first. The good nest is it becomes easier, almost second nature. Variation is normal and one hive will almost inevitably outperform another. This doesn’t necessarily mean anything is wrong with the weaker colony. For more information on what is normal, check out my beginners guide to a healthy hive.