No inspections but the bees where piling it in yesterday and fairly active on the Apple and will cherry trees..I did notice a mole working in a field next to my hives which has started working under my hive stands..two traps put in so it is safe to say it is on borrowed time.. .
This weather is getting beyond a joke. Only had evening clear yesterday so tried to do my weekly inspection but was beaten back after two and half hives in the rain as bees were savage. Retired to lick my wounds and had another go this morning and just as bad but got all done between showers. Interestingly two were trying to swarm with sealed cells but queen still there (clipped). Deeply unpleasant - bees have hardly any stores and obviously everyone is high alert to their neighbour's having a go at robbing. Notably, a large colony on 10 Commercial frames of brood with two supers for space was incendiary yesterday I would have sworn was queenless it was so bad but no, queen there but not a scrap of food - any amount of smoke had little impact as they simply had not stores to load up on. Just shows how much a big colony raising lots of brood needs just to support itself before storing away a scrap of surplus and feeding has to be considered necessary when it is necessary, whatever the time of year.
A nuc has a nasty outbreak of sac brood. Used digital photos blown up on laptop to check for EFB just in case but pretty confident "only" sac brood. Afternoon trip to supermarket to buy sugar, having a tactical rethink and just going to concentrate on getting the bees through and forgetting even trying for a spring honey crop. Just have to roll with it and remember all the good years, can't win every time.