Sustainable beekeeping, chickens, and cake
Today, Paul and I took a trip to check on the West Rise Junior School Apiary on Langney Marsh. Breezy but warm, we took the scenic (but buffalo-free) route to the bees, taking in the swans flying overhead, a female kestrel hunting, and some young moorhens preening on a raft of pondweed. We passed what … Continue reading Autumn Check on the Marsh
Lockdown restrictions and social distancing have made it a bit challenging to visit the bees at West Rise Junior School's Bee Sanctuary. Normally at this time of year we would be in the throes of BeeFest, the annual celebration of not just bees, but simply being outdoors and appreciating nature - a mandate which the … Continue reading High Summer at the School Apiary
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
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
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
I received a top bar hive from a friend of mine who I met at the Barcombe Eco Fair; Caroline is another natural beekeeper and wanted someone with the same beekeeping ethics to have her cedar top bar, as she works mainly with Warrés. It has an inspection window (which I know are rather controversial) … Continue reading Baiting the other hives
Today's weather was finally good enough for us to visit the bees on Langney Marsh. We also wanted to see if our tarp experiment had vanished in the floods, so Paul and I headed down under blue skies and a brisk and chilly breeze to see what was going on in the apiary. We saw … Continue reading Marsh bees, and Bee Lining
We have had a huge amount of rain here in Sussex - and across the UK - recently, and my house is thankfully situated on higher ground so I am not in immediate danger of inundation, although my garden does get standing water in the sunken section, much to the ducks' delight: https://videopress.com/v/LCtFumti?preloadContent=metadata Further down … Continue reading Floods
The Marsh today was looking exactly as it should following the high rainfall we have had recently. It is a floodplain, taking the runoff from the bypass and surrounding industrial areas and in doing so, providing a magnificent habitat for wetland species. Geese, gulls, starlings, skylarks, ravens, and a Little Egret were taking advantage of … Continue reading Tarps on the Marsh
We took a trip to Langney Marsh this afternoon to give the West Rise school bees a final check for the autumn. There was a lot of standing water, perfect for the snipe which zig-zagged up sharply as we passed, and we both heard and saw a number of reed buntings as well as the … Continue reading Autumn Check at the School Apiary