One Queen Wasp who won't make it ...

My good lady (the queen bee) found this queen wasp in the garden with a mating drone still attached to her.

With the weather close to zero we suspect they had both had succumed to the cold. I can only hope that I go out this way! But when we brought them indoors to photograph - she slowly started to show some signs of life. We were amazed at the size of the queen compared to the drone - she's literally twice as big!

This is the 3rd queen wasp we've found in the garden this winter and this is one queen who won't be hibernating and starting a new nest next year.

The Wasp Nuisance

Like every other beekeeper - never seen so many wasps before as I have this year. And undoubtedly all down to the long hot summer we have enjoyed for a change. But the wasp is a seriously misunderstood insect and a valuable contributor to pollination and suppressing nasty bugs in our gardens. They are quite ruthless hunters and darned good at it. But nevertheless - they do become a problem during August when their diet starts to change. And our honeybees are still a valuable source of protein to them.

Having started a MAQS treatment on my colonies, I had removed the front entrance to help with hive ventilation. That then became an open invitation to those wasps bold enough to enter the hive. I watched 10 wasps go into one of my strongest colonies. None of them came out - certainly not alive anyway. After that, I decided to put the entrance back on in the daytime and remove it during the evening. Although the wasps were "probing" the reduced entrance, the guard bees were positively seeing them off.