The year started with some concern as although all colonies survived the winter, a couple were very weak with a mound of dead bees on the floor outside the hive.( ) Having 'hefted' the hives to ascertain the weight of remaining food supplies it was necessary to add a block of fondant feed to some hives.
A few varroa were present on the removable floor of the weak hives, These two weak hives went on to requeen naturally and I saw eggs present in both hives before clipping and marking the beautiful new queens, one was golden and one black. The black queen may indicate that it's egg, chosen by the worker bees to make into a queen, was fertilised by semen from a Drone belonging to a local feral strain. (Multiple drones inseminate a queen on her mating flight). The worker bees create a special queen cell and stock it with a great amount of royal jelly so that the larva develops into a queen bee, and more quickly than the worker or drone.
Most bee colonies built up in size quickly and were able to respond well to an early crop of oil seed rape, prompting the Queen to lay ( ) but no doubt confounding the bees when at the end of the oil-seed rape there was a period of poor weather with no local crop of interest to work, but plently of bees and brood to feed
Spring looked good with early swarming and the bees requeening colonies by natural methods but I had overenthusiastically responded to this by clipping a virgin queen. The tip of a wing can be nipped off to prevent the queen from flying and thus swarming.( )

Honey yield was slow for the rest of the year. I have since heard from a bee farmer and a bee inspector that one never clips queens and the other recommends that beginners do not. It is possible for colonies to run with queen mother and daughter for some time and poor weather may have prevented the virgin from getting out to mate. I need to learn how to diagnose and analyse colony behaviour before clipping any more queens.
Wasps continued to be a big problem, only one wasp colony being located and destroyed but the use of home made wasp traps did help. Old jars or large plastic bottles with the top cut off and inverted, filled to the third mark with jam diluted with hot water is very effective. Wasps decimate bee colonies, they sting repeatedly (bees die after one sting) and feed on the honey and developing bee larva. Wasps are the death knell to a weak honey bee colony. Next year I will buy traps intended to lure the Queen wasps before they get established.
Requests for a photo of a hive to accompany my honey helped justify the purchase of a lovely cedar WBC (bought flat pack), built and painted to enclose a standard interchangeable 14 x 12 brood box. Yes it's a close fit but means that I can remain on one set of apiary equipment.( ) A standard National mesh floor was bought and converted to fit the WBC base.( )

Analysis of the price of a 1lb jar of honey, over the last 100 years by Bill Clark a local association member, has shown that todays beekeeper has to work harder and sell more jars of honey to cover their costs compared with the beekeeper in 1906.( ) Efforts to provide honey to a local shop were not long-lived as their required margin made my hand produced local honey dearer than the imports it sat next to.

The Stoneleigh Exhibition in April provided good bargains on a longed for extractor and mesh hive floors. Click the 'Stoneleigh' link for people picture gallery.

I lost a couple of bee colonies this year, not I think through Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) but weakened by varroa they could not defend against fierce and persistant wasp attack, and of course the problem of virgin queen clipping.
In July two swarms were collected from 25ft up a cherry tree ( )next to a tall beech hedge in a nearby village.( ) They emerged from a neighbouring cottage chimney. The job was a success due the assistance of the tree owner who supplied a long extendable ladder, lopping shears and plenty of strong rope.( ).