Coming into the 2026 season I lost 2 colonies in the Autumn, looks like the queen stopped laying – no brood or bees. So I starting with 11 colonies of which 6 are very strong in terms of frames covered. I have one strong colony that has exhibited Varroa Sentive Hygeine (VSH) behaviour and the colony had very low mite counts. I’ve put together some advice for beginning beekeepers and having made a lot of my hive stuff there are some equipment plans on the site.