The School Beekeeper: Bees gone wild!

As we've had a few fair days, I thought it was time for the first full hive inspection, with the express intent of also finding the queen (before the hive population explodes), so we can mark her. As always, I was ably assisted by Goulwenn. In fact, this time I let him do the hive inspection himself and I was the onlooker and (much crummier) photographer.

As soon as we opened the roof, we knew we were in trouble when we saw comb almost blocking the hole in the crown board (the hive's ceiling, so to speak).

This is not good news!

Goulwenn had great difficulties lifting the crown board off and it soon became clear why.

Goulwenn has reached his ceiling!

The reason - wild comb

The bees were obviously more active than I thought - and certainly not as lazy as I had been. Although temperatures had not been really inviting, the bees, safe in their Celotexed home, had decided differently and started redecorating the hive. The eke, which is always left on the brood box over winter in case feeding becomes necessary, had been filled by the bees with wild comb. Unfortunately, by lifting the lid, we did destroy some of the comb, with brood in it - but what an awesome sight! This is how bees fill a 40x40cm cavity!

Bees gone wild! This is what wild comb looks like.

Having discovered that, we were then somewhat at loss what to do with the wild comb. We decided to keep it (would be so unfair to destroy it; would also kill too many larvae), but make sure the queen could not lay in it. So, when we reassembled the hive, we put a queen excluder on the main brood box, so the queen will stay in the brood box (we knew she was in there - of that anon), and the wild comb on top of that. When the larvae hatch from the wild comb, which the bees will probably extend further (once you've started a DIY job, why stop in the middle, right?), no new ones will be laid there, so the bees will probably fill the comb with honey. Wild comb honey! Looking forward to that. Anyway, this is what the final set-up then looked like.

How we put the hive back together again

Goulwenn searching for what is so hard to find

Before we put it all back together like that, we had to find the queen. Never an easy task. I think the last time I saw the Moon queen was some time in 2013. Of course, it was a different queen then.

Goulwenn went through the frames once and we both looked - nothing. We decided to go through them again and - amazingly - we saw the queen, scuttling around where we least expected her. She let herself be trapped quite easily and then I put her in the marking cage. While I held her carefully pressed against the mesh, Goulwenn painted a little green spot on her abdomen. All done!
After the marking ceremony, she was reluctant to leave the pad and a court of her bees immediately gathered round. Eventually, she slipped off the pad and disappeared into the hive.
We put a super on the hive, so the bees would have enough space, and then closed all up. A successful, if somewhat unexpected, first inspection.