Finding the queen can be reassuring, but it is not necessary on every routine inspection. Evidence within the brood nest can often tell you more efficiently whether a laying queen has been present recently.
Fresh eggs, young larvae and a developing brood pattern provide useful evidence. Record what you actually see rather than automatically marking “queen seen” or “queenright”. If eggs are present but the queen is not seen, those are two separate observations and should remain separate in the record.
When the evidence changes
If eggs disappear, brood ages without replacement, queen cells appear or the brood pattern changes significantly, compare the finding with previous inspections before drawing conclusions. A clear history helps distinguish a recent change from a longer-running issue.
HiveIQ keeps queen sightings, brood stages and queen events together so the beekeeper can review the sequence rather than relying on memory.