Hi everyone, just a quick note on our European hornet, these are much bigger than a wasp but they do have a striped yellow and black rear, the thorax (or shoulder area) is brown and their head is yellow. I noticed an increase in sightings of the hornet in 2023. This year I am seeing more of them. I asked a pest control officer in our area about his sightings, he also believes numbers have risen. I spilled some bee feed at the entrance to one of my hives, every evening a hornet arrives, licks the landing board and leaves. It shows no interest in the bees nor to enter the hive. The bees do not attack it either, is this an uneasy truce?. Try not to spill feed on or in your hive, take the wax frame scrapings away from your apiary, you do not want to attract wasps I am sure. With the blackberry in flower the honey should start building. Our warm autumn and mild winter means you need to feed more or leave more stores in your hives. Each of my hives had about 30lb of honey, 12l syrup and 2 kg of fondant between September and March the bees ate it all but I did not lose any to starvation.

Peter Kirkup

PBKA Asian Hornet Coordinator