Loony Queens

I was eagerly awaiting this inspection as I hoped it would finally resolve all queen issues in both Star and Moon. To recap: last inspection there had been no trace of a queen in the Moon, though I had hopes she was in there, but not yet mated. The Star had just requeened and I had been midwife to a new Star queen.
Goulwenn did the inspection, to get him more confident, as I sincerely hope he will continue beekeeping when he moves to his new school.

Opening the Star (note the cap under the suit to protect the head from stings)

We started with the Star. The feeder was empty and we decided to take it off, as the bees were only storing honey-ersatz in the central frames of the brood box rather than drawing out more comb.

Smoking a somewhat destitute Star

Although I had seen the queen hatch last time and marked her, there was no trace of her. And despite a 10-day-old queen and beautiful weather in the interim (giving her enough time to mate) there were no eggs or larvae in the hive. So, once again, we have to assume the queen has gone missing, mysteriously. Those pesky republican bees must be guillotining her or something!

So all our hopes were with the Moon. If they did not have a laying queen, if she was AWOL as well, then that would be the end of the hives and we would have to get new queens in. Not a palatable setback.
With some trepidation (and also because the bees have stuck everything down), Goulwenn carefully opened the Moon.

Ready to go in!

No matter what is going on in the brood chamber, the bees are busy collecting honey and two supers are almost full with honey now. It's strange: although the Moon has not had a laying queen for more than three weeks now if not longer), there are still many bees in there. I can't honestly say I've noticed any signs of depletion.

A frame almost full of honey

In the brood chamber we were relieved and delighted to see signs of a well-laying queen. We spotted eggs and larvae, most of them still in initial stages of development, as well as some capped cells. So the Moon queen has obviously managed to mate and is now laying. Phew! Despite checking all frames carefully, we could not find the queen herself. But she is in there and laying and that is all that matters!

A hive slowly returning to normal

Ecstatic that the future survival of the school bees is secured, we left them to their antics. I wonder what the next inspection will bring...