Other Visitors to the Apiary

All seems to be going well in the apiary. I have carried out a couple of routine inspections to check how the colony is coming along, and lots more comb has been built, which is slowy being filled with multicoloured pollen and honey. I could also see brood in various stages of development. I don't intend to inspect often though, and certainly not once a week, as however careful one is, it is virtually impossible to avoid one or two casualties with each inspection, and it stresses the bees, so I would rather just observe from outside the hive. I can check through the observation window to see how the comb building is coming along, and watching the bees coming and going at the entrance to the hive, I know that as long as I can see pollen coming in, that there is brood, and that the queen is alive and laying. I can also sometimes smell the lovely delicate scent of honey on a warm day in the apiary, Other insects can obviously smell it too, and I have seen a number of stripey insects buzzing around the hive, other than my bees.

The Hornet Mimic Hoverfly, Volucella Zonaria is Britain's largest hoverfly, being almost an inch long and has colonised Britain from Europe, once rare here, but slowly becoming more common in the south of the UK. I had never seen one before and wondered what this monster was that appeared to be trying to get into the beehive. Apparantly they like to live in hornet's nests, where they lay their eggs. So I'm not sure if it is trying to get into the beehive to live, in the absence of a hornet's nest, or whether it is just attracted by the smell of honey. It keeps returning though, and buzzes around the entrance to the hive for a while until accepting that with the number of bees at the entrance, it is not going to gain access.

I have also seen bumble bees buzzing around the entrance to the hive, as well as drone flies (which look a lot like bees and can sometimes be mistaken for honey bees) and other typs of hoverfly, and the odd wasp, so I guess it is the honey that is attracting them.

Bumble bee and Drone fly resting on top of one of the empty hives after failing to gain access to the occupied hive.