Water Gathering and Frog Life

Another inspection done and I'm pretty sure Hive1 is queenless. I'd marked with red paint last month but haven't seen her since. I also couldn't see any eggs in the hive this time. It's quite possible that after marking her the workers took a dislike to her and offed her, bit odd they didn't start making a replacement though. There's also always the chance she's still in there but really good at hiding and not currently laying any eggs but I doubt that and if she's not laying eggs she needs replacing anyway. When I inspected them on Friday I moved a frame with eggs from Hive2 over to Hive1 so if they need a queen they can get on with making a new one. When I inspect them next week I should know for certain as there'll be queen cells on the fame I added. If they've not made any Queen cells then the Queens in there and I need to revisit the drawing board -or more likely find, squish and replace her.

Today it's been warm and sunny and the bees have been busy gathering water. In their first year they only collected from the bird bath but this years they're collecting from the nearest pond as well.

"We'll be fine if we act like a sparrows."

Sunny day

Air traffic over the pond was a bit honeybee heavy but I spotted a black and yellow thing flying about that was different. It was a Sunfly or Helophilus pendulus, a hover fly which wikipedia tells me is associated with waterbodies, such as my pond. They need very wet soil for their larvae which eat rotting matter and the adults pollinate plants for us. Helpful things to have round the garden, which is just as well as they're apparently very common.

Sunfly sunbathing poolside

Collecting water is a hazardous job for bees. There's always the chance they'll fall in. Failing that there's a load of frogs who'd like a bee or two to dine on. There's a large contingent of tadpoles in both ponds at the moment and adult frogs can be seen and heard in the garden too.

Common Frog Tadpoles

Come on in the water's fine.

"Hello bee, what's it like having legs? I'm thinking of growing some myself."
"Well I like em. I've got six and they have these dead useful grippy things on the end."
"I'm thinking of four, two big ones and the back and a couple of small ones at the front."

Stand off.