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It's been a pretty hopeless beekeeping year. I went down to one colony after losing one over the winter, but I decided to keep going with the one remaining colony hoping good luck would avert disaster. How wrong I was. - My first inspection in early March revealed that the queen was no longer...

Thanks, managed to get it out, took a month but plenty of butter helped

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I agree, I don't get it either. I should point out that it was an abscondment. Typically when they swarm the old queen leaves half the colony to tend for the new queen and the brood, but as there is no new queen or any brood I presume the bees had no incentive to remain. It's my first...

There was no virgin Jeff, the colony is failing because the queen has stopped laying.

It was definitely the old queen, I saw her on Tuesday

Thank you :)

In the low percentiles I think. The hive this morning contained only several hundred bees, stragglers from yesterday's swarm I expect. So even if the new queen is accepted straight away and starts laying I'm not sure there's enough mass to get everything established. I've done splits and...

Thanks A £40 roll on the roulette wheel Wish me (and her) luck

I know I should have re-queened but I was attached, she was my first..:(

No queen cells, no attempts by the workers to lay. There may be some other reason for them absconding but I don't see it. I went through the hive today and there was no sign of anything unusual. As you say, I need to roll a six on the dice

Evening all As the weather here in Surrey has been wet and cold for the past month I refrained from checking my one remaining colony until three days ago. On inspection all was not well. The only brood present were drones and in a scattered pattern. My queen (who I found immediately), is nearly...

I made a cast iron promise to myself that I would stick with just the one colony, it's all I have time for I've just set up my third. Help:eek:

Where did I mention flight path?

Think how much happier they'd be if you hadn't forced them to fly hundreds of thousands of miles to search for water, parched little bees, driven by unbearable thirst.

It's the beginners section of the forum, most people here will have one or two hives.

With the colony so small one advantage you can give them is to make the entrance as small as possible, this makes it easier for the guards to defend. Make sure the Wasps haven't chewed their way in elsewhere.

Bees need to drink and we've had a really dry month. Take a little dish with sloping sides and put it near the hive. Try to keep it away from birds to stop your bees being predated when a fat magpie comes for a drink

Despite the blunders the queen is installed and has been accepted and is currently walking the comb. Whether things progressive positively from here remains to be seen, but at least something has finally gone right.

Not an option I'm afraid, all I had to hand were some scented candles :-)