One of Alison’s ex work colleagues, Andy, keeps bees. So far this year he has had 4 swarms! We took advantage of his generosity and restocked our recently dead hive with one of his swarms, and then, a couple of days later we obtained another of his swarms in a (borrowed - thanks Peter) nucleus box. We now have two and a half hives.

Our own hive, looks to have requeened itself - my last inspection showed no red queen, and what appeared to be an unmarked queen laying. Hmmm. There were, however, no signs of any queen related waxworks going on. I’m confused!

Cheers.