The season has started!

At long last the Beast from The East and The Pest From The West have gone and the rain is becoming drier.

The last couple of days have been quite warm and there's lots of activity in Ravensden. After a gap of two years, the field behind the Ravensden bees has Oil Seed Rape which is coming into flower and accounts for the huge amounts of pollen the girls are bringing in.
Its not everybody's favourite crop but I don't care and if the girls like it and it gives them nectar and pollen, then its OK with me.

Today [17th] was warmer [~17C] so I had a go at the new queen finding process I am going to use.
It was an experiment before I do a video of it and I nearly got to the end without finding her. I assumed she had sneaked past me somehow, then she suddenly appeared. Needless to say I hadn't got my queen catcher handy but after a few panicky moments she was caught and marked.
I don't know when she hatched but she has been marked white as this colour refers to last year [this years queens will be red]. I managed to get more paint on me than I did on her!
There was lots of brood, both worker and drone, and I added a new brood with new frames for them to fill.

Tomorrow is supposed to be the start of a hot period so I will try and do the other Ravensden bees this week.

As its been so wet I haven't got to Scald End for a while but will have a go next week.

Bee deaths

It looks like I have lost three colonies.Statistically this is OK [average is about a third, in America its 40-50%], but three is three too many.
The County Association issued something saying they are  'hearing of winter losses that are a lot higher than normal.'

Wasps

A couple of days ago I noticed a dead wasp on the landing board outside a hive. Today I found a live on inside an empty hive. Wasps also suffer from bad weather and will attach hives if they are hungry.
I will put up wasp traps in the apiaries and have the entrance reducers ready in case the wasps get a bit too inquisitive.

Hornets

Last year Asian hornets were found in the Devon Although no worse than normal hornets for us, they have a weakness for honey bees and they snip of a bees head and give the carcass to their young for food. They can kill an entire colony.
The nest was found and destroyed but there has been another one found on a cauliflower in Bury in Lancashire. The 'odd looking insect'  was spotted by a member of the public who took some photos.
It turns out the cauliflower came from Boston in Lincolnshire.
The National Bee Unit are investigating both areas.
No doubt the NBU will do everything it can but I have visions of this:-

King Canute