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Pictures I took a couple of weeks ago showing yellow jacket scraping wood off some fence boards. You can see all the lines this one and its buddies have done this year. As enrico said will take them years to do anything significant.

Our bees collecting water from the stones at the edge of our pond Their sisters still working hard alongside the bumble bee cousins collecting borage nectar in the wildflower patch. And elsewhere in the wildflower patch the ladybirds getting it together in the sunshine

I wonder if it was down to me sowing the area last Sept and all the stuff started to grow and establish before going dormant over winter. Come spring its raced on now a sea of blue with all the other wildflowers heading towards flowering.

I bought a new suit for this season from Simon the beekeeper that I'm well pleased with. It was their Professional version. Well made, good zips and came with 2 extra veils and 2 year warranty.

My bees are really loving the borage in the wildflower area I created in the garden last year.

I decided to order online from plasticsheets.com which were the cheapest I could find - got an 800 x 432 of 3mm cut in to 3 equal pieces for £23 including delivery. Not cheap but not massively expensive either. Did think about using thicker 4 or 5mm but felt that by time the 9mm ply round the...

Pargyle in your suggestion about a polycarbonate crownboard you suggest having top top bee space rather than having the polycarb sat on top of the frames. Is that purely to improve visibility of the bees?

lots of good discussion, info and views:)(y) Totally agree with Pargyle re using insulation board not straw and having an open mesh floor. I wouldn't have done a window either if it were not for the grandkids who are always asking if they can see the bees but are a bit to young yet for getting...

Thanks Bumblebee:laughing-smiley-004 - yes heavy hive it is but once in position will never be moved again - I hope!

A couple of pics and a vid of the project

Hi PeaBee Yes weather will be the key decider on timing. Frames are different size so to begin with the bees will draw down off the bottom of transferred frames. I will gradually remove these frames over the season so by the end all frames will all being well be 14x12.

Thanks - I'll will post a couple of pics

Hi Dani - yes its a horizontal hive using 14x12 frames.

Hi Looking to see if anyone has some views on the plan I have for my bees this season. Having read an article in the BBKA Magazine about Drayton hives I decide I would give my bees a new home. Over the winter I built myself my own version of a Drayton hive (couldn't justify the £700 Thornes want...

Yes good point - the sooner they start on a new queen if they need one the better. Interestingly they seem to be behaving as normal i.e. no change in behavior - foraging and bringing in pollen but I don't know if thats just because they have some brood still to emerge.

Yes a dead marked queen. No eggs, no uncapped brood, about 2 frames of capped brood still to emerge. Assumption at the moment is hive swarmed sometime between 6th and 15th May. Will have to wait now till circa 3rd to 13th Jun I guess to see if any eggs to know if there is yet another new queen...

Yes I guess that's possible but I would have expected her to be killed straight away on the Sat not 3 days later.

When I inspected hive on Sat there were sealed queen cells present that I killed. It is possible I missed one or more on the previous inspection. Didn't see the start of what happened only saw the cluster that had already formed. Original queen was marked and last saw her on the 6th May

Hi folks My bees have confused me these last few days. On Sat I did a full inspection and all seemed well lots of bees and super frames being capped. I couldn't find the queen so went back through the brood and spotted an unmarked queen running down the side of a frame. I marked her and put the...