Sustainable beekeeping, chickens, and cake
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
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
The weather is doing its best to cheer up a bit, and it is a good idea to get your hives baited with some lemongrass or geranium essential oil to encourage a nearby colony to come and take a look. I have some detailed information on how I do this - and have been successful! … Continue reading Bait boxes, and chickens
I am starting the sourdough courses this weekend, and have ordered some important and interesting flours to both try myself, and demonstrate to the bakers. Flour? Important? Interesting?? Seriously? Well, yes. I listened to a brilliant series of podcasts by Farmarama, where they discussed the grain used for baking bread, from growing, to harvesting, to … Continue reading Flour and friends
Back in August, I had the pleasure of hosting a photoshoot at my house for a publication called Primary Paper, the theme being "Environment". I had warned the photographer, Morgan Hill-Murphy that I had colonies dotted around in a natural setting rather than gangs of hives in rows, and that I wouldn't necessarily be able … Continue reading Primary Paper
I read a very interesting thing on Twitter this evening - I'm amazed to have found something noteworthy in amongst all the General Election mudslinging - from someone called Joe Ibbertson (@BizzleBugs) who I follow as he is also a treatment-free beekeeper: I think this is a really great summary. Consider this: a fundamental aspect … Continue reading Bees in winter
A couple of months ago, I went to a walk-and-talk at Tablehurst Farm about their poultry unit, and today I visited the dairy unit. It's a very small scale operation, and all the more charming for it. They sell their raw Jersey milk via a vending machine at the farm shop, where you can buy … Continue reading An Afternoon with Jersey Cows
Apparently this is a thing, created by the hashtag gods of social media. Still, I love a good sourdough and I get a few people asking about it so here is a quick post about the loaves I make. I have been using a rye starter for a number of years, although my most recent … Continue reading Sourdough September
Ok, so this is a bit of a departure, but it ties in with some thoughts and other discussions, so bear with me... Sustainable beekeeping to me is having hived bees in such a way that incorporates them in to the local area so that we can share the fruits of their labours, but not … Continue reading House Cat, and Sustainable Bees
We've had a beautiful couple of weeks here in Sussex, and I was wondering how my bees were doing. We have had a distinctly unbeautiful patch of weather during June and I was appalled to see on Twitter that many people's colonies had starved, having been caught short following the removal of a spring crop … Continue reading Apiary Update