Lost to the Wasps

Sad news this week. On our last inspection there were eggs and brood in WBC Hive 2 but we had to close down the hive entrance to help against wasp attack, as well as putting out some wasp traps. Unfortunately these precautions were not enough to save the colony, which has now been lost. There were more wasps than bees in this hive and the honeycomb has been ransacked of all of its brood. There’s nothing more we could have done, so it’s just one of those things. One consolation is that the wasps hadn't fully emptied the super so we have rescued this and will add it to another hive when the time is right over the coming few months. We have fully closed down the hive now and will wait for the wasps to die off before potentially starting a new colony in this hive.

WBC hive 2 looking a little sorry for itself and full of wasps

Thankfully, WBC Hive 1 still has lots of eggs and brood and is doing well. This hive has almost filled another super so we might be adding another on our next visit. There are now lots of flowering species on the farm, so this should improve the honey flow over the coming weeks.

Here you can see our bumblebird plot in the foreground and the sainfoin beyond

Despite finding the queen on my last inspection we could not find her again this time, even with Chris and his eagle-eye, so she still remains unmarked and unclipped. We are hoping to find her next time around.

The National hive is doing well, with eggs and brood present, and we were able to locate the queen which is great. 

Our National hive standing tall

This hive has also almost filled it's second super, so we expect to be adding another super to this hive on our next visit as well.