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I saw the first worker wasp of the season. She was hovering near Colony 1.

Earlier this season we saw a lot of Queen wasps. This suggests that it may be a waspy year. There have also been lots of aphids for the wasps to feed on. Wasps require mostly protein early in the seasons which they use to feed their brood. They switch increasingly to needing sugar during the season, which is why they try to rob honey bee colonies.

I have annual problems with wasps. These are most noticeable in central Oxford. I've seen wasps trying to rob my hives at dawn (6am), at dusk (10pm) and all through the day. This continual onslaught would destroy a weak colony so I stop down the doorways to a space about 9mm by 25mm. Even so the wasps still get in and may even be attacking the bees through the Varroa screen under the hive. It's brutal.

Colony 1 has been very busy. I opened the top today to find three full supers. The bees were even building above the crown board and would very soon have run out of space.

I lifted off two of the three supers and put two new ones in their place. Then I put a Canadian Clearer Board and replaced the two full ones on top. In a day or two there will be an early harvest.

We had a taste of the fresh honey from on top of the crown board. It had a light colour and subtle aroma which probably indicates Horse Chestnut. The taste had the intensity which only fresh honey can deliver.

Colony 1 has been continuously occupied for over 6 years. Every spring, except 2018, there have been bees crawling around outside the hive -- stricken with Deformed Wing Virus or some other paralysing virus. These bees became food for Sparrows.

This year seems worse than previous years. There appear to be more bees crawling and for longer. This might not be worse than usual but it feels it. In April it was mostly Drones which were crawling around. Now it is more likely to be workers.

Last season had a very cold spring. Four out of seven colonies died from starvation or isolation starvation (ie there were too few bees to reach the few stores that were left). There was a definite brood break which will have reduced the number of Varroa and may have been the reason that there were very few crawling bees that season. Observing crawling bees is confused by the Sparrows eating them. I think that in 2018 there was very little Sparrow activity.

This season there have been warmer temperature. I can't say for sure whether there was a brood break. There have been higher than expected levels of Varroa this season which suggests that any brood break that did happen had a limited effect on Varroa numbers.

All this points to higher stress in the established hives this season. Conventional wisdom would suggest that there will be colony failures. Perhaps this will happen. I would expect that this would be seen as colonies succumbing to robbing by wasps or other colonies if it does. We'll see what happens.

The Lime tree (Tilia Cordata, or the Linden tree) is found all around Oxford. As I cycle under the avenue of them on South Parks Road I can feel the slight prickle of honeydew falling.

Honeydew is a sugar-water liquid secreted by the aphids who live on the Lime trees. They suck the sap and excrete the liquid which falls in a light spray from the trees. The leaves quickly get a shine where large amounts of this liquid has dried on them. I've seen this in other places around Oxford.

Honeydew can be forage for bees. They collect it when there are fewer nectar sources. The flavour of the honey is said to be distinctive -- "very dark brown in colour, with a rich fragrance of stewed fruit or fig jam" (source: Wikipedia). Hopefully there will be some to collect from my city hives this season

I took a quick look at the stuff which has been falling out of Colonies 15 and 16 today.

The removable tray under Colony 15 had lots of new wax platelets, indicating that they're busy building comb. There were also at least 3 Varroa bodies. This shouldn't be a surprise. Varroa are in all the colonies which I've encountered. This period after swarming has no brood so all the Varroa in the hive are clinging to the bees. Every mite which dies now does so before it can infest a brood cell, which is good news.

While Colony 15 had very little comb in their hive, Colony 16 had lots. Much of this was brood comb from a previous colony. It was beginning to suffer from wax moth and was heavily propolised (brood cells are lined with propolis). After only 16 hours were was a thick mess of dropped comb on the removable tray. There were half a dozen wax moth larvae in various stages of development -- a vigorous swarm doesn't tolerate them. The detritus was so thick that I couldn't tell whether there were any Varroa. I'll have another look in a day or two.

One method of detecting Varroa mites amongst a thick layer of muck is to use Methylated Spirits (a mix of Methanoic and Ethanoic alcohol). This separates the mites from the muck, making them easier to see.

edit 25/05/2019: the flight patterns of colony 16 appeared to be the increasing circles which indicate orientation flights. It's hard to be certain. Individual bees are hard to see -- they are small and dark; they move quickly across a patterned background and there are lots of them.

I received a call at lunchtime today that there was a swarm settled in Portland Rd, Summertown, Oxford. I went immediately.

The swarm was big. It was in the lower branches of an apple tree where it hung over a fence. I borrowed a ladder and just knocked the bulk of the swarm into the box and waited while they got organised. In went the remainder. Boxed.

Collecting could hardly have been quicker or easier. From phone call to me leaving with a box of bees was only just over an hour. Quick work given that I must have taken 30 minutes just to get there.

I was very grateful for the kind assistance of the neighbour Chris and to the home owner who gave us access. They were superb. This sort of help fantastic -- freely and kindly given -- and much appreciated.

I took the bees back to central Oxford where I left them, boxed, to calm down. At about 8:45pm I tipped them onto a sheet in front of the hive. The movement was immediate. In they started to go.

After a while the door became jammed with bees. More bees climbed up over the entrance and onto the front of the hive. It was a bit chaotic. The evening is still warm though so I hope they'll get organised before it cools down too much.

Yesterday I collected a swarm in a box which originated in Tackley, near Bicester, Oxfordshire. The swarm was collected by Paul from Oxford Natural Beekeeping group.

Paul believes that it is a prime swarm and that it comes from an established feral colony. This is great news; I believe that feral colonies have adaptations which make them ideal for low intervention beekeeping.

I was unable to hive the swarm last night but they were safe in their ventilated box. They stayed outside at my out apiary over night. This morning I was up early and watching the temperature rise at my local amateur weather station in Headington. The temperature eventually crawled above 9C and I got to work.

I spread a thin cotton towel in front of the hive, tucking it in between the lander board and the entrance. I then opened the travel box and gently poured out the bees onto the towel. Member of my group recommend the walk-in method of hiving bees. I usuall favour using the big opening at the top of the hive instead (ie take the lid off and tip them in). Today I felt like trying it their way.

Walking in is more theatrical and it does ensure that they've willingly gone into the hive. I recently lost a swarm which I tipped in. I think that they would have absconded anyway but getting them to choose the hive might have improved the chances of success.

The bees on the towel started to climb upwards. This led them to the door. Some went in; then more. Within 10 minutes there was a crush at the entrance to the hive. I kept an eye out for the Queen and for workers fanning to indicated her location. Eventually, after at least half of the workers were crowding the door, I saw her. She crawled up and around the crush and disappeared in through the door. A little while later there was a bit of fanning, but not much.

I left for work and returned at lunchtime. The colony was now getting organised. There was busy traffic at the door and the crush at the door had cleared. There were very few dead workers left on the towel, which recommends Paul's ventilated box (he uses wire mesh taped to the inside of a cardboard box). On the removable base board there were signs that the bees had been cleaning up -- fragments of comb and propolised cell linings cleaned up from the previous occupants. Also they were building -- there were platelets of new wax on the base board. The wax is especially encouraging because it suggests that they will make their home in the hive.

Yesterday I went to catch a swarm in Summertown, Oxford. The swarm was hanging from guttering above a first floor window.

The person who called me helpfully had a large ladder. After quite a bit of work we fixed it to the house and I approached the swarm. I was not delighted with the place that the swarm had chosen. When you are balanced 5 metres above ground on a porch roof it's best not to think about the ground.

The bottom half of the swarm was easy to catch. A quick swipe and they fell into the box. The remainder were in and around the guttering. Some were covering the roof tiles. Some were in the gap formed by the tiles where they overshoot the eaves and between the fascia and the guttering. There were lots of places to lose the Queen. Was she in the box already? I didn't know and I couldn't see any bees fanning pheromone which would have shown that she was there.

I gave the bees a few minutes to regroup. The bees in the box stayed there. The bees around the guttering stayed there. I had another couple of tries. Then I climbed down and sealed the box.

The couple who called me out were lovely and offered Tea.

I took the box of bees to my city apiary. At dusk I came back and poured them into the hive.

Today I returned to inspect them. The hive was empty.

It's not unusual for a colony to abscond. It can happen because they have found somewhere better; because they don't like where they've been put; or because they haven't been moved far enough away from their original nest. Any of these could be true for these bees.

As for whether I captured the Queen, I'm still unsure.

I added Supers to all 3 of the colonies in my city centre apiary yesterday. I also removed the straw filled ekes which hopefully provide insulation on the roof of the hives.

The season feels well underway.

When I added a super to Colony 12 yesterday I discovered a problem -- presumably another one of my mistakes.

Last season I fed them and left an extra super on the hive over winter. I put it above a Queen excluder. Yesterday I opened the hive to put another super on and found that there were Drones above the excluder. Somehow the Queen had made her way into the super before I put it together.in

I moved the excluder above last the super which I put in last year. That will allow the Drones to hatch and move down through the hive. It'll take a while for the colony to sort itself out now. She has presumably been restricted for space.

I'm wondering whether I can encourage the Queen to move down to the brood box. Even if I do there will be Drones which need to be removed from the super later on. It's a mini-mess.

I did a 24 hour Varroa drop count yesterday. This involves clearing the removable hive floor and counting the Varroa mites which drop out of the hive over a 24 hour period.

I counted

• 15 Varroa on the floor of Colony 12;
• 16 Varroa on the floor of Colony 4;
• 30 Varroa on the floor of Colony 8.

These are very high numbers of mites for this time of year.

The modelling referenced by the National Bee Unit suggests that colonies starting the year with this many mites will be overwhelmed during the season. I'm not going to treat. I'll see what happens.

I did try to insulate 2 of these 3 hives before winter. The uninsulated hive had 16 mites. There isn't a noticeable difference in mite numbers between insulated and uninsulated which is counter-intuitive -- warmer internal hive temperature should encourage brood rearing which should give opportunities for mites to breed. This is a very small sample but I'm not seeing that correlation here.

I have seen a worrying number of Varroa bodies on the floors of my hives. This is particularly concerning at the start of the season because it suggests much higher numbers of the mites later in the season. If I was a conventional bee keeper I would treat the hives now. I'm not going to. We'll see what happens.

I periodically look at the removable floors in my out apiary in town. I've seen Varroa bodies on the floor of all the 3 hives there. I haven't been able to count the rate of fall yet but there were enough bodies to be a concern. There are also Varroa bodies in my hive in Headington. This afternoon I cleaned the hive floor and, 4 hours later, found 2 new bodies. This rate of floor is alarming.

The hives which contain colonies 8 and 12 were insulated with cork last Autumn. It wasn't the best job ever but it might have raised the temperature of the inside the hive so that more brood were raised. This would provide a great opportunity for Varroa to breed through the winter. I don't have evidence whether the insulation worked. I will try to count mite numbers to see whether there is a clear difference between insulated and uninsulated colonies. Colony 01 is uninsulated and has the very high mite count. Confusing.

Around the start of April there were also piles of dead bees outside the front of my hives in central Oxford. These were not fresh. It wasn't clear whether they died in the hive and were dumped by undertaker bees during the cold weather, or whether they crawled out. Either way it's not good news. Colony 8 had more dead than colonies 4 or 12.

I don't know what these bees died from. There were non-flying bees outside the hive on the ground. They could be suffering from a paralysis virus. There were no obvious signs of Deformed Wing Virus. I just don't know and I'm not likely to find out now.

Today I've seen several drones around Colony 1. This shouldn't be a surprise. April is swarming season so colonies which are preparing to swarm will be rearing Queens.

The drones have fully formed wings but appear to be unable to fly. I've found a few just walking around. I threw them into the air but they didn't fly. They might be suffering from a paralysing virus.

Early drones may be more likely to be affected by Varroa infestation because there are fewer of drone larvae early in the season, and the Varroa viral load can be more concentrated.

All four hives which went into winter have survived. All four are now busy and apparently thriving.

There is dropped pollen on the base boards. There are dropped brood cappings. There is evidence that they're cleaning out old cells (the fine brown dust on the base board). There are also wax moth droppings -- showing that wax moth move in while the bees are in their winter cluster. I didn't see any ejected wax moth larvae. I did seem some dead Varroa.

There is lots of blossom around. The season is underway.

I set up an empty hive in my out-apiary in case any of the colonies swarm in April. I've replenished the water spot too. I haven't fed them this spring, although I did feed some of the colonies in Autumn.

Trees:

• Plum
• Cherry
• Blackthorn (Sloe)
• May (Hawthorn) -- seen in water meadows between Marston and Oxford's South Parks Road
• Magnolia

Shrubs

• Forsythia

Plants

• Daffodil
• Primrose
• Dandelion (only a few at the moment)

There are some pollen producing trees but I haven't been able to identify them yet.

Flowers seen in bloom in the last few days around Oxford and Headington:

Plants

• Daffodil
• Hyacinth
• Primrose

Trees

• Magnolia
• Plumo
• Blackthorn (Sloe)

I've started to see a couple Dandelions. They'll be in force soon.