Beehive Inspection Checklist and Log

Record each hive's inspection against a checklist drawn from UMass Extension's inspection protocol and NC State's disease table. A 12-mite alcohol wash of 300 bees logs as 4.00%, with HBHC's call for the colony phase. Records stay in your browser; export them as CSV.

Reference tables

The inspection checklist: every field the log records, and the source line behind it. Print it as a blank checklist.

Field	Recorded as	Source
Date	The day of the inspection	This site's field
Entrance activity	Quiet, moderate or busy (this site's scale), with a note	“Check the hive entrance to gauge colony activity.” (UMass Extension)
Queen or eggs	Queen seen; eggs seen	“Presence of a queen: do you see queen or eggs?” (UMass Extension)
Brood pattern	Solid, spotty or no brood seen	“Is the pattern solid or spotty?” (UMass Extension)
Larvae and pupae	Look healthy, or signs of trouble, with a note	“Do the larva and pupae look healthy, with no signs of disease (yellow or milky larvae, punctured/chewed down pupae, etc.)?” (UMass Extension)
Stores	Nectar or honey, and pollen: none, some or plenty (this site's scale)	“Assess nectar and pollen provisions in upper hive boxes” (UMass Extension)
Frames covered with bees	A whole number	“A strong spring hive would be characterized by six or more frames with bees present on a single hive body.” (Utah State University Extension)
Queen cells or swarm signs	Seen or not, with a note	“watching for the appearance of new queen cells near the bottom of the frames” (Utah State University Extension); “Add supers and/or control swarming as necessary.” (UF/IFAS Extension)
Brood disease symptoms	Tick what you saw (not a diagnosis)	NC State Extension
Pests	Small hive beetle; wax moths	NC State Extension; “Monitor and control for small hive beetles.” (UF/IFAS Extension)
Mite count	Alcohol wash, soap wash, sugar roll (mites and bees) or sticky board (mites and time)	Honey Bee Health Coalition (washes and sugar roll); USDA-ARS, NBU and the other sticky-board sources on the varroa page
Feeding given	Syrup ratio and amount	“Heavy syrup consists of 2 parts sugar to 1 part water by weight” (Alabama Cooperative Extension)
Treatment given	What, when and how much, in your words	This site's field
Notes	Anything else	This site's field
Symptoms: American foulbrood (AFB)	Tick if seen	“Discolored larvae, foul smelling brood, ropy remains,hard scale” (NC State Extension)
Symptoms: European foulbrood (EFB)	Tick if seen	“Discolored larvae, foul smelling brood, non-ropy remains, soft scale” (NC State Extension)
Symptoms: Chalkbrood	Tick if seen	“White or black mummies in cells or on bottom board” (NC State Extension)
Symptoms: Sacbrood	Tick if seen	“Brown larvae in the curled "canoe" shape” (NC State Extension)
Field test: American foulbrood (AFB)	Note it	“If the remains are elastic and “rope” out of the cell an inch or more, it is likely AFB” (NC State Extension)
Signs: Small hive beetle (SHB)	Tick if seen	“Wet combs, maggot-like larvae” (NC State Extension)
Signs: Wax moths	Tick if seen	“Silk cocoons and/or tunnels” (NC State Extension)

The log keeps a list of your hives and, for each one, its dated inspections: the entrance, the queen or eggs, the brood, stores, pests, feeding, any treatment you gave and a mite count. Nothing you type is sent to a server. Everything stays in this browser, so the CSV export is your backup: download one after each visit to the apiary.

Worked example: a May inspection

This is an example, not a real hive. It's the inspection the tool shows before you add a hive of your own. On May 16, 2026 the entrance was busy, eggs were seen, the brood pattern was solid and the larvae looked healthy. There was some nectar and plenty of pollen, and bees covered 8 frames. An alcohol wash found 12 mites in 300 bees, with the colony in the Population Increase phase.

The log shows that count as 4.00% (alcohol wash), Promptly control (HBHC, Population Increase). It works the figure out with the same code as the varroa calculator, so the two tools can't disagree: 12 mites in 300 bees is 4 mites per 100 bees, above the Honey Bee Health Coalition's (HBHC) 1% threshold for that phase. Leave the phase as Not recorded and the log shows the percentage alone.

What each field comes from

Most fields follow UMass Extension's veterinary hive inspection protocol. The entrance field follows "Check the hive entrance to gauge colony activity." The two queen boxes answer "Presence of a queen: do you see queen or eggs?", and the brood field asks what UMass asks: "Is the pattern solid or spotty?" The larvae field and the two stores fields follow its questions on larvae, pupae and provisions.

The Quiet, Moderate and Busy entrance scale and the None, Some and Plenty scale for nectar and pollen are this site's own, not UMass's; the form labels them that way.

For frames covered with bees, Utah State University Extension gives a yardstick: "A strong spring hive would be characterized by six or more frames with bees present on a single hive body." The swarm field also draws on Utah State and on UF/IFAS Extension's Florida calendar. The feeding field records the syrup's ratio by weight, the way Alabama Cooperative Extension describes syrup. The treatment and notes fields are free text.

Disease and pest boxes

Each disease box shows NC State Extension's symptom text beside it, and the American foulbrood box adds NC State's field test: "If the remains are elastic and “rope” out of the cell an inch or more, it is likely AFB". The pest boxes carry NC State's signs of small hive beetles and wax moths, and UF/IFAS's calendar advises, "Monitor and control for small hive beetles."

A ticked box records what you saw. It isn't a diagnosis, and the log never says a disease is present. When you tick one, the log points you to your state apiary inspector, whom you can find through the Apiary Inspectors of America directory. The log gives no treatment advice.

Mite counts and trends

An alcohol wash, soap wash or sugar roll is shown as mites per 100 bees, with HBHC's verdict when you record the colony phase. A sticky-board count is shown as mites a day, never as a percentage. HBHC's guide puts sticky boards in its table of less reliable methods, and describes them as "Useful to check mite population trends or as quick check to confirm treatment effectiveness." So the hive view lists every count in a table, oldest first, each with its own method, and never merges washes and boards into one number.

Your records

Your records are saved in this browser only. A private window, or clearing this site's data, loses them, so export a CSV to keep a copy. The CSV has one row per inspection, with the hive name in the first column; a hive with no inspections gets a row with just its name. Importing checks every row first and imports nothing if a line is wrong, naming each bad line. If this browser already holds hives, it asks before replacing them. Cells a spreadsheet would read as formulas are saved with a leading apostrophe, which the import takes off again. Two hives can't share a name, because the CSV matches inspections to hives by name.

Printing

With a hive open, the Print button prints that hive's inspections alone, newest first, without the rest of this page. Before you add a hive, printing the page gives the checklist table below the tool, which works as a blank checklist to take to the hive.

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Sources (7)

1. UMass Extension, Veterinary Hive Inspection Protocol umass.edu
2. NC State Extension, Disease Management and Guidelines for the Honey Bee content.ces.ncsu.edu
3. Utah State University Extension, Annual Calendar extension.usu.edu
4. UF/IFAS Extension, Florida Beekeeping Management Calendar (IN848) edis.ifas.ufl.edu
5. Alabama Cooperative Extension System, Supplemental Feeding for Honey Bees aces.edu
6. Honey Bee Health Coalition, Tools for Varroa Management, 9th edition (June 11, 2026) honeybeehealthcoalition.org
7. Apiary Inspectors of America, US Inspection Services apiaryinspectors.org