On a recent hive inspection I was surprised to see a round yellow dot moving about on a frame of bees. Normally a round yellow dot is a Queen Bee marking to show she was born in a year ending in a 2 or a 7. Blowing on the comb to separate the bees a bit it tuned out to be a worker.
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| Yellow marked worker? |
I initially wondered if someone was doing some sort of test to see where
bees were coming from and going to but if that was the case I should've
seen more marked bees. I reached out and touched the bee and as the bee
moved from under my thinly gloved finger the mark rubbed off. It was
pollen. I found another one looking the same in another hive too.
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| And another yellow dot |
Wasps have started making an appearance round the hives and I've even spotted a couple fighting with bees. Not seen many yet but depending how their numbers are this Summer I may put out a trap. I filmed one butchering a dead bee . I've filmed this before but this is a clearer video -better camera phone, less obstacles, better lighting, friendlier wasp and so on.
Wasp butchering a dead bee
As well as prodding pollen covered bees and annoying wasps with my phone I've made yet another brood box, finishing off the floorboards I was given last year -made three brood boxes, two nucs and a roof with them which I think is pretty good going.
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| Another Commercial Brood Box ready for painting. |
I've also been observing urban wildlife in the garden and apiary and taking a few photographs. Recently upgraded my phone to an HTC 10, the camera is excellent -getting the bees to stand still is a little tricky though.
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| Spider on my Smoker. D-8 |
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| Buff Tailed Bumble Bee (Bombus terrestris) I think |
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| A male Red-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius) |
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| Honey Bee collecting Nectar and covered in Pollen |
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| Drone Fly (Eristalis tenax), a sort of over muscled hover fly |
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Common Frog (Rana temporaria)
One of the cats keeps releasing these into the house. |
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