Late spring and early summer seems to be a popular time for bees to swarm, and it can be tricky to track down where they go to. We helped a chum have a swarm evicted in October last year - they had found a nice sheltered spot between a window and a shutter and set up camp. It was a very big nest and full of honey (yum). As the window was slightly broken, they had also made camp in the utility room behind, so the beekeepers who came to deal with it had a tricky time. It took ages to find the queen.
In May John spotted that they were back in the same place, so earlier this week, I let the beekeepers back into the house to get the bees out again. As the window had been repaired, there were no bees in the utility room and it was amazing to see the structures they had built for themselves. It took a couple of hours to sort out again, this time for a different reason - there was no queen! A worker had started to lay, but was only producing males, and without a queen, it wasn't a viable colony. It was also difficult to persuade them to go in the mini-hive, as there was no queen to follow. All very strange.
After a blazing hot May, June was disappointing with rain and much cooler temperatures. This seems to have fooled some of the self-seeded cyclamen in the lawn that it is nearly autumn and time to flower!
But July is a tricky month, and can be cool and rainy, particularly at the start of the month. However we are now back to what one expects of July - hot temperatures and cloudless blue skies. Very hot temperatures in fact - with shutters closed, windows closed, fans whirring in the evening and cats being very good at doing nothing but sleeping! It is definitely time to make the final piece of the abri roof, so that no sun can disturb the sleep of the Nibbles!
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