Drone comb above queen excluder!

[Nyleve]

Second update. This morning I opened the hive, and removed the honey super that was above the alleged "queen excluder". I then took off the wire excluder which had all kinds of honeycomb and brood comb built up on top of it. My original plan had been to look into the brood boxes to see if I could locate the queen but i would have done so much damage to the brood that I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Scraped off just enough to make a little room - exposing some of the brood (sorry!!!). I then placed an empty super on top of that into which I put the extracted frames (still containing some brood - see photos - that weren't damaged during extraction). They may or may not still be alive but I'll let the bees take care of that. Put the new excluder on top of this third brood box and placed a honey super on top of that. They already seem to be quite busy in the honey super so I may even get a small second harvest!

If the bee inspector ever does show up here, I'll see if he wants to help look for the queen. I don't feel comfortable doing it myself. Otherwise everything seems pretty ok in there so I'll leave the bees alone for a while. They do have a lot of work ahead of them.

[T Beek]

Seems like you're asking all the right questions.  I think you'll make an excellent beekeeper someday.  You've got some awesome beeks in Ontario and will eventually find them (or they will find you) as you gain experience. 

Remember; Beekeeping has one of the sharpest learning curves around.  Nothing like chickens/horses/goats etc...which are easy when compared to bees IMO.

Queen Excluders?  Many, including myself have never used them.  It remains a personal choice as most beekeeping methods are. 

Even those Beeks w/ fifty plus years learn new things every season 'if' they're paying attention and remember that they still don't know all there is to know about bees.  (bees know more than we IMO)

This is a great discussion!  Thanks to all who contributed!

[Nyleve]

Thanks for that. You're absolutely right about the steep learning curve. I've kept goats, horses and still have chickens and bees are in another category altogether. I'm really loving it when I'm not staying up all night worrying about them. It's one or another - either everything's looking fine and I'm happy or something is definitely wrong and I'm crazed with worry.

[D Coates]

The newer you are the more ups and downs you'll have.  It's definitely not something you can "set it and forget".  Hang in there!  You'll be on your toes for the first few years but the more experience you get though the less those downs seem to worry you.