When is the time to check the apiaries to see if all is okay? Answer: When the weather turns nasty, when the wind is blowing hard, when your land owner calls saying something is wrong with you hives/bees.

I got a call from one of my landowners saying that my hives were tipped over and the bees were swarming. I was on my way out there anyway to pull 2 supers of honey from the one standard hive and I would have noticed it anyway, but I said that I would be right there as soon as I could and take care of that problem. Sure enough, the wind had blown hard the day before and I had 3 nucs stacked 3 deeps high and the nuc on the end had been blown over and it struck the next hive causing it to tip over into the next one. Domino effect. Since a nuc is half as wide as a standard 10 frame hive, it is easier to tip over sideways. This is the time to shore it up somehow by placing it in a protected area or tie it down with a rope and stake, or weighing it down with a biiiiiggggg rock or concrete block. The nucs will be better off spacing them far enough apart so that one will not hit the next if it does tip over. I have learned something myself. This the first time for me. About half of what you learn about bees comes from experience.

That was a good reason to check the rest of the apiaries. Everything was okay. I can rest again for a while.