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New blog up. https://www.lancswt.org.uk/blog/karen-mccartney/midsummer-bees-and-wasps

New blog up. Hope you enjoy - https://www.lancswt.org.uk/blog/karen-mccartney/early-summer-bees-and-wasps

The Hylaeus males are back! Gorgeous little bees. Known as the yellow faced bees here in the UK but I prefer the Swedish name citronbin - lemon bees because of the faint lemon aroma they give off. This guy sat on my hand yesterday.

Last blog is online now. Catch it here - https://www.lancswt.org.uk/blog/karen-mccartney/late-spring-bees-and-wasps

Hi all, very excited to have this new section in the forum! I write a blog for the Lancs Wildlife Trust on bees and wasps so thought I'd include the links here as well as a few other things I've been up to in my absence. First of the series here -...

It's been a while since I was last on the forum but thought I would pop on and say what a thoroughly enjoyable day Dusty and I had at the WBKA convention on Saturday. Lovely to see JBM again and meet EricA at last! Redwood and his lovely wife were delightful and I came home with lots of goodies...

Some people were very excited to do a spot of beekeeping today ;) Thank you, as always Dusty. Feels good to be back.

As you all know, Dusty has kindly allowed me to inspect hive 2 for a while now. The queen was one of hivemakers best. She was knocking on so we didn't think she would last the spring this year but she was laying strongly until a few weeks ago when we noticed a slight dip in the amount of brood...

We combined a colony last week and Dusty closed the top entrance that night. He said there were still a few confused bees hanging around the top entrance, but they would disappear over night, only to appear again the next day. How strange we thought. While Dusty was preparing the equipment I...

I think this monumental moment deserves is own thread. Today, I marked my first queen. I was all ready to go. I've been using a queen marking tube to catch bumbles and one Andrena scotica, but that one kept escaping, so I thought I was confident using it. On our 2nd run through looking for her...

Rose sawflies back in my garden! This is the third I've seen laying but my roses are covered in the slits they make to lay their eggs. OK, not a bee, but in the order of Hymenoptera so kind of linked. Very pleased to catch them laying.

Tomorrow is my first inspection at Dusty's apiary. The weather here has been beautiful, but as each sunny day comes I get more antsy. I can't lose the green queen! Glad I've got you all for any panic! We have written down a plan of action for every situation, and I have equipment at the ready so...

I've been reading a thread on fb where a few people have got queens but no brood, larvae or eggs. A few people have mentioned that the recent cold weather may have caused them to go off lay. I'm just interested to know the opinions of forum members. If they were mine I'd be looking to replace...

http://www.greatbritishfoodmagazine.com/blog/dont-bee-lieve :icon_204-2:

One week to go! I am excited, this being my first convention. Who else is going? We ( Dusty and I ) will be attending on the Friday. Be nice to put faces to a few of you :)

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A few people on the facebook group are seeing drones already. What do you think? Is this unusual? I don't have masses of experience but I'd have said this is a bit early.

It is Arran's birthday soon, and he is growing fast. The suit he wears currently is getting a bit too tight so I am looking for a good quality suit for him, but we have to watch the pennies. I am looking for something with quite thick material, and he wears a fencing style veil so would be...

I was asked along by Dusty to help take the honey from the roof of the cathedral. It was a beautifully sunny day. The idea was to take the supers, remove any stubborn bees, crown board top and bottom of cleared super, take it around the corner to the little doorway in the turret, and then...

Well I'm seeing it all this week! First of all I watched a honey bee enter a HB flower upside down and forage the pollen, then this morning I saw what I thought was a very yellow bee foraging the HB on the way to school. A closer look and it turned out to be a wasp! With the HB stripe and...