Survivors

If blips needed a BBFC certificate, I think this would be PG. It's the first time we have been back to the apiary since the civil unrest we provoked last week, so there was a certain degree of trepidation and anxiety. We are no longer certain who consider themselves our allies or enimies in this triangular conflict!

We are pretty sure we have succeeded in destroying the wasps nests, but it's clear we left a lot of now-homeless workers living out purposeless lives, Intent only on gorging themselves during any time they have left. They have discovered some frames of fondant, stored but unused by a colony that perished over winter, which I have kept in the bee shed, intending to extract the wax at some point. They have also found a way to creep under a section of the eaves to gain entry. This is not conducive to relaxing beekeeping. I need to plan a mopping up operation

After the upset last time, we wondered how the bees would receive us, wondering if there would be lingering nervousness or defensiveness. In fact, there was nothing of the kind - we inspected all the colonies and they were, without exception, calm and easy to manage. All is forgiven and forgotten - and I'm as mystified as ever about what got them so agitated. What is clear is that the summer nectar flow, such as it has been, is over; we need to turn our minds to preparing the bees for winter, and we will not have a second harvest - in fact, we fed several of the colonies today because we were concerned that their stores are so low

We just watched the first of the Chris Packham 'Earth' programmes, covering the Permian extinction. I loved the relish with which he explained - after covering all the horrors of massive volcanic eruptions, runaway global warming, loss of the ozone layer, acidification of the seas and the loss of 90% of species on earth - that a particular hardy plant survived and thrived in the aftermath, and this provided a home for another survivor... the cockroach