After the unprecedented cold weather in April and early May tending to keep bees in their hives, they are likely to be keen to swarm as soon as there is a hint of warmer weather.
It is suggested you set up fully framed up bait hives, which might obligingly attract a passing swarm or into which you can put a captured swarm.
Also check your colonies as soon as possible for queen cells and consider splitting them if necessary.
Thanks to the efforts of Alex Bignell, Ken Greatbatch and Peter Redfern in the face of heavy rain showers, the damage caused to the Avoncroft "Orchard" apiary by a falling tree has been repaired.
It now looks better than ever, as shown in the photos below (taken during the brief sunny intervals).
Scientists in a Dutch university have been training honeybees to identify Covid-19 infections.
To read how and why, please click:
https://modernfarmer.com/2021/05/bees-can-be-trained-to-detect-covid-19/
The new Avoncroft apiary - dubbed the "Windmill" apiary, as distinct from the original "Orchard" apiary, now has some residents. Thanks go out to Greg Hunt, Jay Rixon and all the other members of the team for making it happen, as shown below.
Most of the BIBBA webinars have now been uploaded to YouTube.
If you subscribe to their channel here, it will help them provide further services.
Among the virtues of bees you may not be aware of is their knack for detecting bombs. Thanks to the fact that they can pick up the scent of explosives with their antennae, researchers in countries such as Croatia have spent years perfecting how to use bees as landmine locators. But there's a problem............
