Today is overcast but warm, so I took the opportunity to have a look inside the hive. There were about a hundred bees in the top box, but little evidence of any structure yet being built onto the new wax sheet half frames in there. When I lifted the top box off, you can see the mass of bees working on the frames in the body of the hive :
Have been inspecting the neighbouring flora with new interest, and can report that we have acacia and wisteria in flower nearby. When you watch the bees coming and going, there are definately two main flight paths - one doubling back from the hive entrance and heading behind our house, the other one going up and straight out, forward, across our small road and into our neighbours gardens. The returning bees have packs of bright yellow pollen on their back legs. Don't think you can really see that on these photos, but here are several shots of the landing pad today !