but then it has been so hot, perhaps it has advanced their season.
First action - climbed into the loft to find an old badminton racket - the recommended weapon against hornets - and managed to kill one of them - took out my anger on it, so the photo attached shows a bit of a battered hornet.
Then decided to get my bee-suit on, and put the entrance limiter on the hive, to prevent any hornets crawling inside. I'd planned creating a wire mesh threshold protection thing, but haven't yet got round to it, as I thought we still had another month till it would be needed, so, as a temporary measure, I have rigged up a bit of protection using some drainage grills that we had been keeping.
Bit Heath Robinson, bur hopefully should give the bees some protection.
Watched, unable to get it with my racket, as the other hornet caught a bee mid flight, and carried it off to the apple tree - where I understand it would have pulled off the head, legs and wings, then carried the body back to the nest to feed their young.
Guess I will be spending most of my summer on guard swinging a badminton raquet around the end of the garden :(
Will keep you updated !