swarms

It has been a busy time , I entered the honey show and won first prize for our gardeners/farmers handcream that we make and use it works well as a barrier cream and the honey helps to heal nicks and knocks. Our mead also received a highly commended. To celebrate the solstice we took soli to the sea near Southwold. I now have lots of birdfeeders , plant supports and cloches to sell made with the latest batch of willow. Some of the early potatoes have blight ,the more obscure older varieties bought from potato day, so I have cut the tops off in the hope of controlling it. In the garden there is loads of fruit and veg helped by the recent rains all of it needs to be picked for eating, storing or preserving The result of all this activity and unsettled weather meant the bees were overdue a visit and one hive responded by swarming. We housed the swarm in another brood box and when visited yesterday the queen was laying. The abundance of queen cells we found in the swarmed hive we put into the nuc box leaving 2 in the queennless swarmed hive, It is now a waiting game.

photos

Here are 2 photos taken by Julie web designer from clarus creative. The hen we thought the fox had taken , it was a great surprise to see her appear with 11 chicks which she took to the hen run, she flew over the 6 foot fence and then persuaded them to go through the chicken wire and is now settled in the hen house with them.

Honey Time

We have extracted the rape honey from the 2 hives and taken anothe super from hive 1 our stronger colony. I have put the supers out for the bees to clean up and this morning they were doing just that. I will put the supers into the freezer next to kill any wax moths that also like to make a home in the wax. Each batch of honey is very different in colour and taste. The last batch seems sweeter and has a citrus taste I think the bees found some lime trees, So far no queen cells to be seen.
In the garden the mizuna (salad leaves) and yellow podded climbing beans are the stars. The strawberry bed is giving us a pudding each evening and also feeding the fledgling blackbirds.

The willow has arrived so now to soak it and get weaving some more plant supports for next week.

Honey Time