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Had a talk by a member of Jersey AH team at my BBKA association meeting. (Think he was lost in the wilds of Lincolnshire. :D) He has 6? 10? traps which he checks daily on his rounds. It means he can monitor a bigger area. If you are using bait stations a hornet could come and go before or...

Uggh! Got to do my frames too.

Not a great landowner who doesn't tell you that your hives have been damaged OR tell you when they are going to clear up. And a couple of new stumps and a load of chainsaw chips would be pretty obvious. Click bait. Disappointing.

Most reports of trees falling in apiaries more often show how the hives had a close escape. The thorough level of destruction suggests vandalism.

Drone cappings dropping out of the one hive I was hoping to breed from. Bit early. Is she failing? Have to wait and see.

My snarky dumb response. #edit to the original post (just to make it clear (good grief)) #edit Shouldn't the advice here be, very little you can do and doing something is unlikely to save them if they are that small and how do you even know this sort of detail about the size of the cluster at...

#not helpful#

Monthly heft/weigh-in. Recent posts have got me worried about starvation but my lot are not loosing much weight. Max 4lbs over February. Less than expected. Small clusters.

Warning sign. I had a queen that limped on into April/May, I'd seen drones throughout the winter, but I eventually united them.

OK. Will do. I emptied a wasp trap 5? years ago in August? September?, the last time I had nucs being overrun with wasps, and examined a european hornet that had also been caught. Rare here, I'd not seen them before. I got a surprise when it woke up and ran off the table. Tough little insect...

I don't expect to catch an AH this year. Nearest report was Hull which is just over the Humber but I'm a good way south of there. No push to start trapping or monitoring in Lincolnshire. But I'm experimenting with a home made monitoring trap. 8mm entrance hole, 5.5mm bycatch holes. It's been up...

In the middle? Think that's mould but I'll check again and give them another few days in the freezer if anything moves. (ugly frame. I should melt this one down)

Checked through my drawn supers for wax moth. As I don't use a QE until the end of the season they can have had brood in them. (Probably why I don't win at showing.) Think this is just mouldy pollen. Nothing wriggling or flapping.

Next year Afghanistan?

Heard one beekeeper divide up the brood box with alternate frames of foundation in a distant apiary that he left for long intervals. By June they should be able to handle it. That means a lot of extra boxes and frames. Think I'd find a helper. I might do it if I was nearby. Good luck. I...

Surprised people are even mentioning alcohol wash or sugar shake tests at this time of year. LEAVE THEM BE. Wait till colony is building well (May?) before you sacrifice or torment 300 bees. Over the winter you've only got the number of mites dropping through a mesh floor to guide you. People...

Just by looking at the cappings dropping through the floor I have one colony that seems to have used the warm temperatures to break cluster and open honey cells on outer frames. Don't suppose they've been moving stores but might have filled their stomachs. Just guessing.

A professional woodturner called Andy Coates (follow him on Twitter) lost his **** on someone who came to his workshop and shouted at him from the doorway while he was using the table saw. He put up this notice.

Put together an NBU-style AH collection trap and added 5.5 mm holes around the top to allow bees to get out. First test. Trying to avoid by-catch.

BBKA forum looking for admins on Twitter. ? Yesterday. They may be short staffed.