I managed to expand the number of colonies over the course of the 2025 season from 8 to 14. However, I lost 2 in the Autumn, I suspect the queen stopped laying – no brood or bees. So I’m going into Winter with 12 colonies of which 6 are very strong in terms of frames covered, I seem to have one strong colony that has exhibited Varroa Sentive Hygeine (VSH) behaviour – brood was being uncapped in the Autumn 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 equipment with some of the plans on the site.