COLONY ONE DOWN

.. Bees lose out to wasp invasion

 HIVE NUMBER ONE has always had a troubled history but the final chapter was sadly written today when I made what turned out to be my last inspection.
 Compared to the other hives, there was no sign of life when I approached it and my worst suspicions were confirmed when I looked inside ... the struggling colony was no more and all of the bees were dead.

HAPPY DAYS: The pioneers from Colony Number One in July

just after they arrived after being captured in a swarm in Ayr

 The only sign of activity came from a few wasps which have tormented the hive on a daily basis in recent weeks, plundering it for its honey.
 Regulars will remember that this hive produced my first ever colony which originated from a swarm of bees in Ayrshire. Then we had the dilemma of trying to find the queen and once we'd found her she did something bees never do, or aren't supposed to do, she led another swarm.
 Within weeks the thriving little colony was much reduced in size and despite a successful attempt to introduce a new queen the worker bees never fully recovered. If only we'd had a few more weeks of sunshine I think they might have overcome their difficulties.
 We closed the entrance down to such a narrow opening that only one bee at a time could gain access and this made it difficult for wasps to enter the hive and raid the honey supplies.

A BEE'S eye view of a wasp courtesy of 

http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/

The wasps though were unrelenting in their mission, and with the ability to sting many times, any worker bee which confronted them didn't last long.
 Having virtually sealed off the entrance to the hive I then put out a jam jar trap which caught a few wasps but not enough to stop the onslaught of raids from sunrise to sunset. At one point I spent more than two hours with a fly swat trying to repel the wasps but 20 dead ones later they were still coming in droves.
 Last week I even put in an extra frame a sealed brood from another hive in the hope this would give the colony a chance to expand more quickly and repel the black and yellow invaders.
 Today I intended to add a sugar-syrup-based feeder to supplement their food gathering, but it was too little too late. The hive was empty of honey and most of the colony lay lifeless across five frames, some buried inside the honeycomb as if to extract the last bit of food they could find.

JAMMY DODGERS: Despite 
narrowing the hive entrance
& planting jam jar trap, the wasp
still succeeded

 It was a terrible, pitiful sight and now I feel wracked with guilt wondering what more I could've done. I'm constantly told less is more in the beekeeping world so, having poked around the hive last week adding a natural-based Varroa mite treatment, I decided to wait a full week before adding the feeder.

 I've been told wasps can strip a hive bare very quickly but seven days ago Hive Number One seemed to be turning a corner at last.

 My mentor Alex assured me nothing could've been done and he was quite shocked by the rapid deterioration of the colony as well.

 I guess I am now going to have to make daily trips to the apiary and observe the comings and goings of the remaining four hives through the winter. All, apart from the Warre, have feeders inserted containing the sugar-based feed and I will do the Warre tomorrow.