🐝Day 32: Play Cups, Golden Queens, and Yard Guests!
What a morning in the apiary! August 4th brought a little bit of everything: tactical frame-shuffling, unexpected visitors, a major harvest haul, and the triumphant crowning of a brand-new queen.
Amanda Collins
8/4/20262 min read
🎓 Bee School: What’s the Deal with "Play Cups" in a Honey Super?
While doing our "leave or pull" rounds in The Bastion, we spotted something that makes every beekeeper do a double-take: a freshly built queen cup right in the middle of a honey frame!
Before panic sets in about an impending swarm, here is why bees build these empty "play cups" in honey supers:
Muscle Memory & Architecture: Young wax-builders naturally construct downward-facing cups whenever they draw out new comb—especially if there is a slight curve or gap in the wax.
Hive "Insurance": Even with a queen excluder in place, workers will occasionally build emergency cups above it "just in case."
As long as the cup is completely empty (no egg, larva, or royal jelly), it's just an empty wax ornament! You can scrape it off with your hive tool or let the bees fill it with honey later.
👑 The Ranch: Meet Queen Clementine!
The absolute crown jewel of the inspection was over at The Ranch. We spotted fresh eggs, and right in the middle of the comb strolled the stunning new mated queen! With her long, sleek, golden-orange abdomen, she is an absolute showstopper.
To honor her successful rescue mission and her vibrant golden coat, she has officially been named Queen Clementine! 🍊👑
🛠️ Around the Apiary: Yard Rounds Breakdown
The Chalet: Moving at a slow-and-steady pace. They have brood and larvae coming along, but zero interest in empty foundation. We moved their blank frames back to the outside walls so they can focus on clustering without extra empty space to defend.
The Citadel: Comb builders extra-ordinaire, but reluctant cappers! They’ve drawn out gorgeous comb in their honey super, but they're taking their time curing and capping it. We left them to keep working.
The Keep: These stubborn girls completely ignored their upper brood box—not a single bee in sight! Instead, they were building burr comb in the gap between boxes. We scraped the burr comb away and baited the top box with a wet, sticky drawn frame (freshly spun from The Bastion) to entice them upstairs.
Queen Freyja & The Vanguard: Looking picture-perfect! Miss Freyja’s crew is hard at work expanding into their honey super with immaculate, clean comb. Nothing capped yet, but the colony is thriving.
The Haven: Earning the "Extra Spicy" award for the day! They were boiling over with activity and VERY offended by the disturbance—sending a clear "Bitch, we are busy, leave us alone!" vibe. 🌶️
🍯 The Harvest: 9 Heavy Hitters!
We finished up with our powerhouse hives, The Vault and The Bastion, pulling a grand total of 9 fully capped frames!
Why 9? To keep our extractor runs perfectly balanced with a 6-frame spin followed by a 3-frame spin. Even if a few remaining frames were sitting at 80% capped, we left them in the hive to "bake" a little longer for next time!
🐸 Yard Guests & ⚠️ Yellowjacket Watch
We weren't the only ones out in the yard this morning:
The Good: A massive, velvety bumblebee dropped by to visit the top bars, and a bright green treefrog was spotted hanging out on a hive body (our favorite native pest-control manager!).
The Bad: The late-summer yellowjackets have officially made their appearance. As nectar flows tighten up, these striped bandits start looking for weak hives to rob, so we'll be keeping a close eye on hive entrances and popping on entrance reducers where needed.
That wraps up an incredible Day 32 in the yard! What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever found drawn out on a honey frame? Drop a comment below! 🐝✨