Bee Wednesday Ep. 6: Hive Buzzing with Action! (Spotting the Queen and Finding Queen Cups)

Hey friends! Welcome back to another Bee Wednesday. If you’ve been following along on my beginner beekeeping journey, you know that every single time I open up the hive, it’s a brand new learning experience. Today was absolutely no exception—the hive was truly buzzing with action, and we caught some incredible things on camera!

Before cracking open the boxes, I made sure to suit up. I always wear a calm white sweatshirt, pull my hair back, and secure my jeans, socks, and gloves. Bees will instinctively head for any exposed skin if they get startled, so full coverage is a must. Armed with my smoker to help calm the girls down, I went in nice and slow.

Here is exactly what went down during today’s hive inspection:

1. The Queen Excluder and Saving Wax

After gently prying past the wax and propolis the bees use to seal up every little crack, I removed the queen excluder. This screen keeps the queen contained in the lower boxes so she doesn’t head up into the honey super. Remember, the top super is for our honey harvest, while the lower boxes belong entirely to them!

While removing it, I noticed the girls have been building up some extra comb on top. I’ve been carefully scraping this excess wax off and collecting it—it’s going to be perfect for making homemade beeswax candles later on!

2. Nectar vs. Capped Honey

One of the coolest visual milestones for a new beekeeper is seeing the progress of your honey storage. During the inspection, I pulled a frame that perfectly illustrates the difference between nectar and finished honey:

• The Uncapped Side: Packed full of shiny, liquid nectar. Until it’s capped, it still has too much moisture to be considered true honey.
• The Capped Side: Beautiful, wax-sealed honey! The bees only cap it off once it has evaporated down to the exact right consistency and moisture level for long-term storage.

3. Spotting Her Majesty (Help Me Name Her!)

The absolute highlight of today’s inspection was spotting the queen! She was moving beautifully across the frame, easily identifiable by the bright green dot on her back. I realized today that she still doesn’t have a proper name. Drop your best name suggestions in the comments below—I’d love your help naming her!

Right near her, I also got a great look at some drone brood. Drones are the male bees; their cells puff out and look a bit more raised and rounded compared to worker cells. Fun fact for fellow beginners: drones are larger, but they don’t even have stingers!

4. Busted! Finding Hidden Queen Cups

Just when I thought the inspection was tracking normally, I got a major surprise: we found two queen cups!

Bees build these peanut-shaped cups when they are prepping to raise a new queen, which often means they’re getting ready to swarm. Because we want to keep our current hive intact and don’t want them splitting, I had to carefully scrape those cells off. Finding two of them today was definitely an eye-opener and a reminder of why consistent weekly inspections are so important.

Final Takeaways

All in all, it was a wildly successful wrap. We saw capped brood (the next generation of worker bees), plenty of nectar, finished honey, our gorgeous queen, and handled those sneaky queen cups just in time.

Because I’m still learning right along with you, I want to hear from you! What questions do you have about starting a backyard hive? Let’s figure it out together.

Happy Bee Keeping!