My team are currently waxing a stack of frames that were steamed out last autumn and sat outside, albeit covered up, all winter.
At least a dozen queen wasps a day are emanating from the stacks where they have been overwintering and, despite the heat, are only slowly getting active now.
The girls have become expert queen wasp crunchers. By late last summer there were some truly massive wasps nest around, probably due to the early start they got in the 2011 April weather. My pest control operator that looks after our premises still talks about some that were four and five feet across that they took out in September. They must have sent out a massive amount of queens at seasons end.
Seeing as many queen wasps and queen bumbles this year as I have seen for a long time, possibly ever. Especially, but not exclusively, lots of rufous tailed bumbles. Never seen so many of these, so many we are picking them out of the radiator grilles on the cars each day before they perish.
