That’s the last thing we need !

As I passed her walking home, she casually asked, “Any leaves?” and, quietly pleased, I replied “a few”, knowing I’d already taken most of them. A small but satisfying victory in our friendly rivalry.

Drones have a single purpose: to mate with a queen, their existence ending in a brief, explosion (haploid sperm vessels burn out in midair on mating)

The hive gets rid of what it cannot keep, preparing for the cold nights ahead. Think of it as “a super organism” . Each bee, a cell in a larger body.

My honey this year was a similar colour and texture.

In these last days of summer, I shall attempt one final new Queen introduction (arrives by post tomorrow, an F1 hybrid buckfast Queen. I can only hope they greet her not with stings.

I introduced two new Queens. Yet they were slayed by my bees madness.

Then to finish the colonies, hordes of wasps descended and destroyed anything left behind

And now, one colony remaineth.

It’s sad seeing so many colonies collapse like this. I will never know the cause, whether it was poor mating, environmental stress, or simply the queen being eaten on her mating flight.
Going forward. The strong queen is now golden. She’ll be the foundation for rebuilding.

Moving forward, plan is to combine the queenless colonies, using the newspaper method, pairing weaker colonies to create stronger units. Once that’s done, I’ll gradually unite them with the queen right hive which must remain strong enough to absorb the newcomers.

The hive is unlikely to survive. Things had fallen apart quickly and we need to combine what’s left with another colony.

Bees were fighting inside the hive, tearing at each other in the frames.

There was only a small patch of brood left, and no sign of a queen. No fresh eggs, no larva. Nothing to suggest there’s any hope of the colony requeening itself. Just a handful of confused, tired workers trying to hold on.

I shook the bees off the comb several metres away from the hive. Foragers, with their good orientation, will find their way back—but the laying workers won’t. They’ll be lost, unable to return home. A strange mercy, I suppose.

A hard reset for the sake of the colony’s survival. Hope it works!

But before that, I had to deal with the rogue workers

These young egg-layers don’t have a future in a healthy hive, and their presence would only cause more

So, I did what has to be done: