This time we're ready for you.

The long time reader of this blog will know last year I lost two hives to wasps, including the sadly missed queen Barbie who was the star turn when I took her to markets in the observation hive.
This year will be different.
Hopefully.

Wasp traps

These are easy to make out of Sprite bottles.
You take a 2ltr bottle and cut the top off which is pushed into the bottle and a loop of string is made to hang it up.

You then put something sweet in the bottom of the bottle such as jam or rotting fruit. Add water and a little washing up liquid to break the surface tension of the water making it easier for the wasps to drown
The wasps find their way into the bottle but cannot get out again as they fly up the sides of the bottle.
I will put several of these up at the perimeter of both apiaries. There is a school of thought that says that although they catch wasps they also attract them and those that don't get caught let the main nest know where the bees are, so I will have them away from the hives.

Hive entrances

It is one of the jobs of young worker bees to protect the hive from possible invaders such as wasps and they stand guard along the entrance to the hive.
If the hive is under attack the size of the entrance can be reduced using a block of wood.
Normally these reducers look like this

If things get very silly some reducers can be rotated so the hive has a much smaller entrance, barely two bees wide.

Some of my hive entrances had this option and they worked well as can bee seen here so I will be adjusting all the blocks so I'm ready when the wasps arrive.

Posh [and expensive] wasp traps.

Once it was too late last year I had a look at these things.

They look similar to the Sprite traps but apparently they are made by some scientist bloke and only catch the scout wasps  or something like that. If you're interested their video is here.
I've ordered one for each apiary.