Sustainable beekeeping, chickens, and cake
I collected a swarm on May 7th, which was a cast from a beekeeper's hives. They were low down in a shrub, so not a difficult collection! https://videopress.com/v/9AdthtTK?preloadContent=metadata I put them in a nuc box and checked them ten days later as they were certainly not tiny enough to definitely be a cast, so I … Continue reading Patience…
I collected a swarm from another beekeeper a few days ago, and as they were a prime swarm (by all accounts) and are managed, but not treated for Varroa, I thought they would work well down at the solar farm in the Thermosolar hive. I took them down to the site the following evening, so … Continue reading New colony in the Thermosolar hive
One can never tell how many swarms there are going to be for any given season, and I was surprised to see so many people on the Association's list...swarms are deemed the sign of "failure" and bad management, yet here are tens of people wanting them to repopulate their apiaries after losing colonies over winter. … Continue reading Swaaaarms
Thankfully, it is perfectly possible to continue to care for honey bees while still respecting the social distancing/essential travel restrictions, and this hot weather and abundance of flowering trees has meant all the bees have been extremely busy. I have combined all my contractual visits in to one 'Bee Tour', hence the sudden crop of … Continue reading Thermosolar update
I wanted to go and see that the Warré hive was getting on ok and hadn't been knocked over again! A glorious day at the Marsh, with the usual compliment of geese, a heron, corvids and starlings. Naturally I forgot my binoculars, but the birdlife was abundant. Lots of hawthorn out too - great for … Continue reading Hive check at Langney Marsh
Brief diversion from the bees as the rain poured down! Since the coronavirus outbreak, I have been selling my eggs directly to people and I reuse old egg boxes. I was given some brush pens for my birthday, and a book on modern calligraphy and lettering: The pens are a make called BAOKE and I … Continue reading Modern calligraphy
When I buy flour for my sourdough, I endeavour to use it as an opportunity to support British farmers who are using environmentally sound practises on their farm, and have full traceability for the product. I have written previous posts about this but Hodmedod's and Bakery Bits are two of my go-to websites. They are … Continue reading New toy…
It was a beautiful warm day on Wednesday, and I noticed an awful lot of bees flying around in my carport where I store all my hive equipment. I am checking the apiary twice a day for swarms at the moment and on my sweep back round, I saw this: I presume it came from … Continue reading First swarm!
We have had some lovely weather here over the last couple of days, and the bees have been making the most of it. I am checking my apiary for swarms twice a day now, although all the hives have quite a bit of growing to do. Here is the hive I nadired last week - … Continue reading Spring growth
I have been waiting for a suitable opportunity to go and check the bees on the Marsh, and the need for this was hastened by my getting a message to say that one of the hives was leaning at rather an angle as the livestock had managed to get in to the apiary... On arrival … Continue reading School Apiary Check