Intelligence Test

I've mentioned several times that wasps have been a nightmare this year. This is partly because they have gained access to the bee shed, attracted by the smell of honey and sugar, which has turned the business of going into the shed for equipment, hive parts and so forth, into something of a dystopian nightmare. Though I know where they are getting in, and it's not hard to fix, we decided not to plug the gap until end of season, for fear of diverting them on to the colonies themselves

We've removed anything that might attract them, but there are still plenty of fragments and smell. The numbers are dwindling though, and today I spent some time cleaning up some of the carnage of the ones that have died inside. It will need a more thorough clean when the weather turns, but it feels a bit more under conttol

Some of the stuff from the bee shed has re-located to the home shed. This has re-located the wasp problem too, so I have had to do some hasty wasp-proofing there as well. Having worked out that we are quite interesting people, they have also been visiting us in the kitchen from time to time. Adding in the post-Covid enervation, there have been moments when I have felt I was 'not waving but drowning'!

All this is additional to the core concern about the bees. Wasps are persistently trying to get into the colonies to rob them of their food. The bees resist and end up dying in the conflict. They are also diverted and inhibited from all the normal tasks of foraging, brood rearing etc. It has all the characteristics of a medieval attack on a castle: when two or three individuals have breached the defences and got into the citadel, the rest of the assailants soon follow en masse and defence is over-run

This colony has quite a lot of bees, but they seem to be quite passive and non-violent. I have seen quite a lot of wasps gain entry with little resistance. This device is an attempt to address the matter. Its effectiveness depends on the premise that bees are smarter than wasps. To get in to the hive, the bees must enter one or other end of the plastic tube and walk along it to the mid point, where there is a narrow entrance to the actual hive. Meanwhile, the perforations in the centre of the tube, allow the smell of honey to emanate there - hopefully deceiving the wasps into believing that to be the way in. This is the first time I've tried this solution. Desparate measures!

It's not the most beautiful of pictures, so I've added a colourful extra of one of my non-executive advisors on this task - looking sceptical that wasps can really be that stupid. Here's hoping she's wrong