9/16/09: County Bee Inspection!

Conditions: Sunny, 76F
Present: Cuyahoga County Bee Inspector
Equipment: No changes.
Activities: Smoked hives about 11am? Inspected all frames.
Background: So I get a call at work from Annie, my wife, saying someone is here and they are opening up the beehives. Someone official. They said they could not call ahead as I did not provide a phone number. I have heard some horror stories about county bee inspectors transmitting all kinds of diseases from other apiaries due to infected hive tools and protective equipment. My poor wife, I freaked out on her and told her to tell the inspector not to inspect my hives until I was able to speak to them. Except when Annie called me, the inspector was already in the Russian hive inspecting... Annie was upset because I had never told her not to allow an inspector to inspect without my permission, and reasonably so. It all worked out. I got to speak to Lisa Wright, the Geauga and Cuyahoga county bee inspector, and she was able to reassure me that she is just as concerned about the biosecurity of my bees as I am. When I spoke to her she had completed the first inspection and was about to move on to the next hive. We're planning on moving in October and she issued me a Transfer Permit and wished me luck. When I got home, I had report #49 waiting for me.

Observations: From the report I can discern that Lisa observed varroa in both colonies, and both colonies have twisted wing virus, which is a disease transmitted by varroa. The Russian hive has sacbrood, a seasonal malady they should be able to recover from. She recommended replacing the old comb (that we put in there to give them a head start) next spring, which we were planning to do. The Italian hive had dysentary and "k"-wing, which is a possible sign of Nosema, which is more serious. She recommended treating them with Fumagellin during fall and spring feeding. Despite that list of maladies, her general comments to me (verbal) were that things looked good and smelled wonderful. I think she just likes the smell of beehives. She commented that in general I should adopt the practice of keeping all frames pressed tightly together and centered in the hive body, and that I should "adpot practice to prevent leaving dead bees between where hive bodies come together." I'm not sure what practice this is, since the bees are pretty comfortable placing themselves between hive bodies before I can stack the next super on there... When there are 60,000 in a hive, a few get squished. All in all, it was nice to get a mostly healthy report on the bees. I would have liked to be there to observe her inspection practice and see the twisted wing, "k"wing, signs of dysentary, etc. Maybe next year. I guess I'll provide a phone number next time I register.