Red Kite at Bungeons

A kite flew out of the hedge yesterday it was incredible to see so close, there has been a lot of bird alarms in theses overgrown ashes.
We have 2 mums with chicks and given another family away. At the moment the mums are staying safe in the runs with their chicks . Nora our wwoofer helper has put straw around the strawberries and cut the heads of the docks, too late to dig them up.

Opico Grass Harrow

From this..

To this

Chris, Ken and Thomas have been converting this 12m machine to two 6m machines
It folds hydraulically for transport and they have added an air seeder to apply grass seed mix as part of grass rejuvenation

Weird and wonderful wood

Small woven willow fence A mixture of our own coppiced willow.
This week end is Weird and wonderful wood at Haughley it is always an inspiring day out loads to look at, food, music and the chance to hunt for tools and books.

The hay bale hen and chicks. She managed to get 6 chicks from the hay bales across deep muddy rutts standing water, tall grass, pouring rain and into the hen run , there were casualties along the way. She is incredibly fierce  We made the right choice to leave her alone.
We managed a quick visit to the bees One hive is very hungry I am feeding them syrup and still getting dead bees, when we looked inside it doesn't seem right a bit muddley and they were not happy at being disturbed There is a laying queen . They need some sun and warmth.
Izzy has created a facebook page for bungeons.

Oak before Ash...

We have had 3.9 inches rain 99.5mm in April a total of 8inches for the year so far.
The nucleus when moved on a rare bee day into Francis' brood box was not flourishing I don,t know why it was fine, so now we need to get some eggs and brood into the box but the weather is not good for bees I haven't been able to visit my bees since the end of March. I have put sugar syrup on top for them.They can't take advantage of all the rape fields which are surrounding us due to the heavy rain.
On Saturday I will be at Hartest farmers market selling my willow plant supports and on Monday at Beccles for the fete to raise funds for the Kenyan exchange  http://www.sjlhskenyaexchange.weebi.co.uk/
I saw my first swallow about a week ago but no sound of a cuckoo. A hen has raised chicks up on the bales behind machinery we don't know how she will get them all down in one piece and into a dry space, meanwhile the cat sits close by watching.. again the dilemma to interfere and possibly make matters worse or let nature take her course.