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Checked a home hive for EQCs after splitting them last week. The one I had marked to keep has disappeared so settled on another nice sized one and knocked down the rest. Bees very calm and supers getting very heavy. The VQ I introduced into a mini nuc has finally mated and is laying. Nearly lost...

:iagree:

Put loads of supers on (finally!) as the bees are piling the nectar in and back filling the brood boxes. Saw one nice new queen in my out apiary hive that swarmed but no eggs yet so gently closed up and left her to it. Definitely mated as nice and fat. That’s two locally mated queens so far with...

Blackberries properly out. Bees also on sea daisies, tamarisk, hebes, fuchsias, geraniums and privet just starting to flower.

Toms and cucs in the greenhouse doing well and cabbages are like triffids outside. I’ve also got a perennial kale that is taking on tree like proportions.

Hot composter might do it.

Turns all your wax bright yellow too!

Agreed. I’ve netted my cabbages against butterflies and not seen one yet.

Good luck with the op.

Hurrah, all newspaper chewed through, lots of contented bees (apart from some pingy stingy ones from the original hive which had their queen despatched) so looks like the unite worked well. Finally found the queen in the bottom brood box but not before she had laid a load of (presumably) drone...

Walked past the hives to close up the greenhouse last night and thought I saw a dead mouse in the entrance of hive 1…. 😱 On closer inspection, the bees have dumped a big wodge of newspaper shreds in the porch from the unite I initiated on Wednesday!

Toms romping away in the greenhouse but pathetic outside. Think I read somewhere that they hate dramatic temperature changes, especially of going from mild to cold (ie this 'summer'). Cucs doing ok and thrown out several fruits and chillies in flower. Thank heavens for the greenhouse...

I was in the middle of checking a hive that I was requeening (to see if the queen had emerged ok) and they swarmed! A big chunk of them flew over the hedge behind the apiary and settled in a tree above a huge ditch flanked by brambles. Doh! Thought I had knocked all QCs back to one fat one...

Glad I chose this year to have a go at queen rearing! It’s been abysmal so far - thought it was my diabolical grafting….

Sea daisies, ****, tamarisk, Rosa rugosa, roses, fuchsia and brambles (yay!) and they’re going wild on the raspberries.

Well I did have some nice crocosmia… 🙄

errrrrr - you quoted 'the publishers blurb'......

Likewise. Drone cells, decent amounts of brood but not a sign of swarm cells. Only VQs I have on the go were from a pre-emptive split and requeening a nasty hive!

Fed most colonies again. Two hives that did have 4 nicely filling supers are busy eating through those. A spring crop looks highly unlikely right now. We get a day of sun, the afternoon turns cold & windy and then a cloudy cool day to follow. Not great foraging weather. Blackberries are opening...

That looks brilliant & love the colour.