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Pollen is the high protein food which the bees use to make food for their brood. If you see pollen coming into the hive then it's reasonable to assume that there is brood being reared in the hive.

The bees visit flowers and collect the pollen in 'baskets' of hairs behind their hind legs. We can see these 'baskets' as bright patches on the legs of returning bees. The lumps of pollen sometimes get dropped and fall to the floor of the hive where they can be examined.

Pollen is an indicator of which flowers are in bloom at any time. It isn't a guarantee that the bees are getting nectar from those flowers. Nectar flow can vary by plant and conditions. Wind pollinated plants produce no nectar at all (as far as I know).

Pollen can also be eaten by humans if you like that sort of thing. I know one small person who likes it. It has a pleasant, subtle flavour -- sometimes with an aroma of the flower. You won't get well fed on it though. The amount of pollen in each basket is tiny.

Colony 01 has an infestation of black Ants.

I find hundreds of them on the base board. I find very little pollen and no Varroa. I think that they harvest these. I don't know whether they're a serious pest but I would expect to find them throughout the hive. In any case, the base board is the place where I do most of my inspections so I need it to be intact. At the moment it's being reorganised by the Ants.

My solution is to apply Pine Tar (branded as Poultry Stockholm Tar) to the legs of the hive. I've heard that Ants sometimes create nests inside the hive but I haven't seen any in there when I looked earlier in the season. I think that they're entering via the legs.

Poultry Stockholm Tar stays wet but sticky. I don't expect it to affect the bees because it's outside the hive. I will report back.

I visited the apiary where Colony 11 is sited this evening. They are still angry 24 hours after I reorganised the hive in a failed attempt to extract the lid of a nucleus box. They bumped against head when I came within 5m. When I had my veil on and got closer they went into attack behaviour (high pitched buzzing; staying in one place on the veil; jabbing movements with their abdomens). I hope that they calm down and don't spend the season being angry.

The trees have finished their blossom: Hawthorn and Horse Chestnut.

In their place there is abundant Buttercup and Elder in flower.

There are also very many varieties of hedgerow wild flowers (seen near Stanton Harcourt). I've seen daisies, climbing roses and different Umbilifers. I doubt whether many of these are within the forage area of either of my apiaries.

Colony 11 arrived in a nucleus box from a member of my bee keeping group. The box did not contain frames so the bees had started to build comb on the roof of the box. Today I tried to remove the box with mixed success.

Mission not accomplished. I now have a double height hive with the Queen in the top part.

When I received the nucleus box I took the bees out of the body of it and placed the roof on top of a Commercial hive body. The remaining space was packed with framed comb. The top was packed with a wooden board because the nuc' roof sat on top of the hive body.

I hoped that the bees would move onto the framed comb but it seems that they have started filling it with pollen and honey. There is sealed brood on the comb which is attached to the nuc' roof.

My aim today was to place another commercial box on top of the first. The Queen would be on the framed comb in the lower box; the nuc' lid would be in the upper box. The sealed brood on the nuc' roof would hatch out and then I could remove it at leisure whilst the Queen worked in the lower box.

Some of my plan happened. I placed a Queen excluder on the ground and placed the new box on it. I removed the packing wood and then gently lifted the nuc' box lid out. There was very little damage to the comb. I looked at the comb on the lid and saw sealed brood but didn't see the Queen. I placed the nuc 'lid in the new box and packed the lower box with framed comb. I packed the upper box with framed comb up to the nuc lid. I put the two parts together with an excluder between them.

I had hoped that the Queen would run out of the nuc' lid into the darker body of the lower box but it almost certainly didn't happen. There was no safe way to extract.

I'm no closer to removing the lid or the comb attached to it. I now have a hive whose internal organisation is disrupted. They may settle down nicely but there's a danger that they won't guard their doors adequately because the brood nest is too far from the entrance. That mistake may have compromised Colony 09 in Hive H last year. I don't know how to sort this out now.

That's all. One wasp. I hope that this season doesn't produce as many wasps as the last season did.

The evidence on the floor of Hive E pointed to an occupation. That is exactly what has happened. At some point in the last few days a swarm has occupied Hive E. Welcome to Colony 12.

The signs that this was not a robbery included detritus which looked too dark to be from capped honey. That was a sign. The most striking thing though was the Wax Moth larvae. An infestation of Wax Moth must have been under way because there were 3 or 4 larvae on both times I looked.

I don't know the origin of Colony 12. I haven't seen evidence that it has come from one of my hives. If it had then Colony 04 in Hive D would be most likely. I don't see evidence that has happened, although there was less dropped pollen than on the floor of Hive G.

Colony 12 seems to be a decent size. It has arranged itself vertically through the hive, which has a Commercial brood body and a super on it.

I took the lid off to check that they really were occupying but I didn't lift out any frames. Their temperament seems fine. They didn't attack, even though I didn't use smoke.

I put a feeder on the hive with some of last years honey in it. I was concerned afterwards that this may be improper haste -- the settling swarm probably won't have exhausted the honey in their stomachs so there may be a greater risk of bringing a disease like AFB. On balance I don't think that I've done anything silly. The swarm wouldn't have needed to build comb so I'd already missed that opportunity to empty their stomachs. There have been few sunny days lately and lots of rain. The last of the spring tree blossom has gone so feeding looks like a good way to encourage brood rearing. I'll inspect in mid-June to see whether there are any disease signs.

I'm happy to say that my transfer of Colony 11 from its nucleus box to Hive C have been successful. There is pollen on the hive floor; debris from cleaning of the framed comb and evidence of new comb building. There was also lots of activity at the hive entrance.

The less welcome news is that the comb building is happening beneath the nuc' box lid. I had hoped that they would move onto the framed comb and leave the lid area alone. That hasn't happened so I'll have to do something a bit more destructive to sort the hive out so that it has only framed comb in it.

Hive E was showing some unusual activity today, given that it's supposed to be empty. There were bees coming and going from the entrance and a large amount of debris on the hive floor. There were wax moth larvae; large bits of comb and wax which had been nibbled from white and heavily propolised comb

The obvious explanation for the activity is that the empty hive is being cleaned out by robbers. The new occupants in Hive C, colony 11, are building up just after the Horse Chestnut blossom has finished. Pollen in Hives G and D shows a change in colour to bright orange which vividly illustrates the transition. I find it difficult to follow the bees flight path when they leave the hive. I've always found it hard to follow a tiny black dot as it moves quickly across a variegated background. Maybe they are robbing?

The pattern of debris makes me doubt robbing. We're in peak swarm season now, and how often do robbers evict 2 or 3 wax moth larvae? Then there is the wax on the hive floor. The cappings are seldom very dark, even in the brood area, but the floor had very dark material. It looked more like cell cleaning.

Time will tell.

At lunchtime today I successfully removed the nucleus body which Colony 11 had travelled in.

They had almost all moved down into the hive body but there were now several entrances. I removed the nuc' body and arranged it so that it is part of the hive roof. The area of the hive body not covered by the roof is packed out with wood. A regular lid is on top of that

There was a bit of confusion when the entrances were reduced to one. Some gathered in odd places; many just flew around. I could see that it was settling down. There may have been some fanning from the remaining entrance.

I'm leaving them for today. I will inspect the removable floor tomorrow to see where they're most active. If there is new comb being built under the nuc' lid then it'll be hard to extract it. If they're cleaning out framed comb then it should be much easier.

Colony 11 appears to be a feral colony which was forced out of a roof by building work. It was collected by a member of my bee group and put into a nucleus box. Unfortunately the colony was behaving very aggressively so she gave it up.

I collected the colony last night in its nuc' box. As I gently wheeled it on the back of my bike I could smell the alarm pheromones coming from the ventilation on the top of the box.

When I arrived at my out-apiary I moved the hive box from the stand where Hive C was positioned. I then placed the nuc' on top and went home.

This morning I awoke to fairly heavy rain. There were puddles showing that it had been raining for some time. The nuc' box is ventilated at the top so that rain can get in. I decided to move them to a hive with a roof as soon as possible.

The nuc' box does not have frames in it, so the bees are building comb which is anchored to the box. This presents a tricky problem: How do I transfer them? The lid of the box -- which the comb is fastened to -- fits across about half of a national hive body. I decided to move the roof of the nuc' into Hive C and pack the remaining space with framed comb. I took a large piece of wood which will pack the top of the hive so that it is level with the nuc' roof. Put together the hive is part nuc lid with free comb and part framed comb. I hope that the bees will prefer the framed comb. Experience has taught me that they seldom do what I hope.

I arrived at about 0530 this morning. The temperature was around 10C and it was raining steadily. The bees were not flying. I moved the nuc' off its stand; arranged the framed comb to the correct size and then lifted the lid into the hive. Some of the free comb stayed attached to the body of the nuc'. A large number of the bees stayed in the nuc' box too. I didn't try to find the Queen. I just placed the nuc' body on top of the area of framed comb, secured it with a hive strap and left them to work out what was best for them*. I'll go back later today to see what they've done. If the Queen was on the comb then I hope that they'll move down to her. If she's still in the nuc' body then I'm not sure what I'll do. The bees were seen bringing in pollen before I took the nuc' box last night, which suggests brood. She should be with the brood, which give me hope that she's inside the body of the hive rather than the nuc'.

It would appear that the hive which I put Colony 10 into didn't suit them. I checked this morning and they've left.

This isn't a big surprise. Swarms can be actively looking for sites even after they're put into hives. I did open the hive the day after I put them in and saw them mostly stuck to the hive wall. That suggested that they hadn't accepted the hive. I don't know why they didn't like it.

This morning there were 3 or 4 groggy and cold bees still there but it was otherwise empty. I think they may be scouts which were still out when the swarm left.

For at least the last 2 years there have been flightless bees crawling around outside Hive A. These bees were clearly suffering from Deformed Wing Virus or another disabling virus. This year there are none.

The cause was explained to me by a researcher at University of Salford. All winter the Varroa mites feed from worker bees. They accumulate DWV virus particles. In spring, when brood production increases they rush in to infest the new brood and transfer more virus to them. These bees show visible signs of DWV -- deformed wings or an inability to fly.

The absence of crawling bees can be explained in several possible ways.

1. There are fewer Varroa mites in the hive. I usually check this by looking at the removable floor of the hive. I've found dozens of ants on the floor so I don't know whether they've been taking the Mite bodies away. I don't think that this is what's happening.
2. The overall number of virus particles has fallen in the hive. It was very cold in April this year. This should have stopped the bees rearing brood. Virus is removed from the hive by bees or mites leaving the hive. If more mites died during April then it might explain some of the reduction.
3. There are fewer brood this year. This seems most likely. The activity at the hive entrance is quite slow. I did look inside the hive and found only one frame of brood which was capped. I may have overlooked uncapped brood but it points to there being fewer bees and fewer brood. They're taking longer to build up this spring.

On reflection I think that Colony 01 is smaller this year which would mostly explain the absence of crawling bees.

I was called today at about 5pm about a swarm in Barton. It's from a feral colony which I've caught from before and they seem pretty robust. They've been feral and untreated for at least 3 years.

The catching was pretty easy. It was in a tall shrub, maybe 2-2.5m up. The swarm was about the size of a large Pineapple. I was lent a ladder; I took some secateurs. The rest was easy except that I never know how long to wait for stragglers. I probably only waited about 10-15 minutes for them to go in. When there were as many bees coming out as going in I shut the box. The stragglers will probably rejoin their old colony.

I hived them at dusk. None of this business of marching them in on a white sheet. I banged the box and most went in. It wasn't as perfect as I've done before. I gave it a wishy washy bang when a short, sharp bang would have been better. I've seen no evidence that they get harmed when they slide in as a lump. Some ended up under the Varroa mesh so I'll have to swish them off tomorrow morning.

Once most of the bees were in I saw them fanning to indicate where the Queen was. Job done.

The colony in Hive C is dead. It appears to have starved because of the extended cold during March.

I visited my out apiary today to see that the bees were ok. Two of the 3 hives which I thought occupied were flying. The other was too quiet. I suited up and found bees inside which were in the last stage of starvation before death.

There were still some stores in the hive but it appears to have been too hard, or too remove from the cluster, to access. There is still capped brood in there, showing that there was a laying queen during some part of March. I think that the last 2 or 3 cold nights must have finished them off. The Queen probably stopped laying during the cold spell around 16th March. It has been fairly cold since, with only short periods above 10C (minimum flying temperature) during the last week.

This is a disappointment. I thought that this colony was a survivor.

People value things more when other people value them. Price is a useful proxy for judging what other people value, but price reflects usefulness and abundance and status and cultural history.

It takes experience and time to learn the value of that which is abundant, cheap or free. It takes no time to be influenced by someone.

I value feral bee colonies. Established feral colonies are where natural selection is allowed to happen. Established feral colonies are survivors.

Bee Keepers in England have valued the Italian strains for decades, particularly those which were selectively bred from 'Italian' stock at Buckfast Abbey: the Buckfast Bee. Professional and mainstream bee keepers value the Buckfast Bee because it is easy to manage and produces lots of honey. It's a product of modern agricultural thinking.

Honey bees now face new challenges: new invasive species; new pests; invigorated diseases; changing land use leading to less forage, or seasonal variability in the amounts of forage; new pesticides.

The Varroa mite is a significant challenge. It is a pest which was in balance with its' original host, the Asian Honey Bee (Apis Cerana). The move to the Western Honey Bee (Apis Mellifera) changed the mite's life-cycle so that it now infests worker brood as well as Drone. This has increased its' virulence. The mite has also super-charged existing viral diseases -- particularly Deformed Wing Virus which is implicated in the increasing number of failing colonies (Colony Collapse Disorder). The Varroa mite is a parasite which is out of balance with its' host, the Western Honey Bee.

The popular Buckfast Bee does not cope well with Varroa.

Feral colonies are probably either descended from, or related to Buckfasts. What sets ferals apart is that they have interbred freely and been subject to natural selection. Newly escaped colonies which cannot cope with the new challenges will die within 2 or 3 seasons. My best survivor colonies have been untreated for at least 5 seasons.

Oxfordshire is unlikely to be the place where Western Honey Bees evolve a resistance to Varroa. Evolution is not that convenient. Oxfordshire can be a place where natural selection is allowed so that the bees can reach a survivable balance with Varroa. My low intervention approach is intended to support that.