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Saw a bumble on my nasturtiums.. Saw nothing on the buddleia. Two cabbage whites on my sprouts. No beans on my runner beans,, We are doomed!

Removed and extracted 11 supers : approx 190lbs of honey. No colony had filled the two outer frames of any nuc presumably due to the cold weather..

I live 30 miles away just North of Stoke on Trent. You need strong colonies to withstand wasps (though not seen many yet).Two three frame brood nucs would be likely decimated. And that is well before winter.

It's true. If they have just entered a chimney they will leave.

Personally I leave bottom boards in all year.Makes no difference .

Lime flow on - lovely smell (It usually rains when it is flowering.:eek: Need to start extracting as run out of supers. It will not last.

24C today. 5 queens emerged incubator a day early (leaving 5) Mix of apideas/Kieler and Home made nucs. Tried to requeen nasty hive - could not find unmarked Q so requeened equally nasty adjacent hive. Found minute swarm - 200 bees on branch - housed in Rainbow min nuc. Lost kgs in sweat..as...

Ditto but in Banffshire Scotland.. Caught rabbits, etc but never saw a tick Saw three wasps near hives yesterday

Nice bright and sunny morning yesterday. Cut all hedges, Then one hive swarmed at 10am straight into dwarf pear tree in our only near neighbour's garden. Waited till they settled, caught and tried to hive them,, (This involves climbing over the 1 meter high adjoining wall with their permission...

Light a fire.. they'll soon leave (done that before) But do it asap before they become established and block the chimney with highly inflammable wax,

Staffordshire is doing its best this year to emulate Banffshire in its summer weather..

Makes me homesick for Scotland

Have not had time to reorientate so move now..

Funny you should write that. Had a Q- nuc with laying workers. Turfed them all out Thursday expecting them to find new homes. Still on a pile on grass yesterday so covered with nuc box. Still there this am. So opened up weak nuc, sprayed with air freshener, sprayed remains of nuc with air...

Err I was stung by a cast swam this am: up trousers near a delicate position...

:welcome:

Seen more European Hornets (incl one safely removed from our bedroom ) than wasps.

I never ever use string to suspend a cage in a hive. Always use soft wire - easily bent , unchewable. From garden stores

Bees tend to eat eggs not produced by their own queen. You cannot usually move them to a different colony. Larvae are accepted though

Watched the rain yesterday Watched the rain today Placed 11 QCs in incubator. Too cold to do more Qrearing. Awful summer.