This behemoth of a beehive turned out to be a nine-hour removal job, and the queen ended up in the bee-vacuum (she was found safe and well the following day).

While this nest was not the largest we have removed, it must have had the most significant population we have yet encountered.

It's been a very productive winter for these bees, and they have managed to make a fantastic quantity of honey—especially given that it was only about one-year-old.

They have also been packing away the pollen, and the queen has been in a laying overdrive.

You might expect a colony to have just started to raise drones at this time of the year, with spring just days away. Instead, however, it was astonishing to see thousands of monstrous drones raised and ready to spread the genetics of this colony far and wide.