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these caught me out today, alongside Q cells in two other colonies. All in one apiary - other apiaries nearby all behaving themselves.

If I'm right then it is more of a large shrub than a tree, but can still get to 2-3 metres high, and as with all willows is thirsty, so yes maybe a bit to close. They will easily root this time of year if you just stick a piece in the ground.

Gut feel is that it is one of the sallows/goat willows. Good for bees in the spring though when mature (catkins). If it has flowers then it is something else!

A picture of the whole the whole plant and a close up of the bark might help. I'm tending towards the sallow/goat willow option. If it is that, then really that is as far as you can go without catkins at least, since they hybridise, although you can tell Salix caprea and S cinerea apart by the...

Bit difficult to tell from that photo - could be an apple (but leaves usually toothed to a degree) or looking at the way it is shooting further down the branch some sort or sallow/goat willow

Warm here today in the sun, so transferred two overwintered very full nucs into hives, and then checked all my other hives. Most rammed, with patches of drone brood (saw a drone in one on the nucs - i think an overwintered one though as no other brood). The one I was a bit worried about as it...

looks like someone has been throwing those small polystyrene balls in the hedge...

If you haven't got a lot to do why not just use a domestic oven? That's how I liquify mine, set on a very low temperature (use an oven thermometer to check). Mine will take a 30lb bucket easily, and at 40C the plastic doesn't melt! Depending on the honey type, mine is ready for jarring after...

I think they might be cluster flies? - https://www.cotswold.gov.uk/media/nqaecyzh/cluster-fly-fact-sheet.pdf

Thanks Eric. I looked again yesterday and there are newly laid eggs, so hopefully all is well. We'll see in the spring.

I have/had a queen less hive. It has no brood at all, but has lots of polished cells, and evidence of torn down Q cells. There are plenty of stores. It was Q right when I started Aplife var, 8 weeks ago and I had not checked in the interim. The bees are calm, and my instinct is that there is...

yes, it is

I started in Santiago. The (poor) photo is two Asian hornets feeding on grapes. This one in roadkill

Just started walking the Camino de Finisterre in Galicia. A lot of Asian hornets easily seen - either feeding on grapes and brambles, or hawing over flowering mint. A real eye opener, and very distinctive with their nearly black bodies and yellow heads as they fly towards you. Easy to pick up...

But dwarf cornel does - it's an upland plant. Not sure what the Croatian species is though - Assynt Flowers: Dwarf Cornel (Cornus suecicus) - Assynt Field Club

Not snowberry; I think it is a type of cotoneaster

'I have read a suggestion that government might allow developers to build based on water treatment improvements being made at some point in the future which seems exceptionally dodgy.' Maybe, but some are now baked in commitments already agreed to as part of the last Periodic Review of Pricing...

The background and context is below. Effectively, a broker would, by paying for a reduction in your phosphate pollution (via a compliant discharge), resell on that reduction to the highest bidder. And development land carries a high premium. At some point sewerage treatment works will be...

Small leaved lime (native) has symmetrical leaves, and hairs on underside of leaves by vein joints tend to be brownish; common lime (hybrid; the most commonly planted tree in grounds, municipal situations etc) tends to have asymmetrical leaves, with white hair tufts on the underside. It also...

Well, you can guess what has happened here - hive stand had collapsed shortly after my last visit about a week ago. The Q has evidently gone, and the Q cells are either like this, or horizontal - now that the hive has been reassembled. I chose to leave one of the horizontal ones, and destroy...