Bees from Hell gone now

The other student in my lab has returned from her holiday. So now I no longer have to care for Bees from Hell. Thank goodness. My own bees are keeping me quite busy enough! Naughty box now has LOADS of males, and the bees are starting to treat their assemblage of eggs/larvae more and more like a colony and less like some stuff in the corner. So they are getting a bit agressive around it. What this means is I will probably have to start putting the feeder in the other chamber of the nesting box so I can refill it without getting mobbed every time!

Also, I have a queen bee. I caught her in the park yesterday (bees were misbehaving so I joined flatmate and friends on a picnic). I wanted to find out if love and tender affection is a good way to get a queen bee to start nesting. So far, I am optimistic. Though I am tempted to give her some workers from the Naughty Box to give her a little nudge in the right direction.

Yesterday I also saw an evil harlequin ladybird, which I have now reported. Hooray. I'm sure Mike Majerus will be pleased.