Tales from a down-shifted family
- Making the most of modest means
Fortunately, the day after discovering we had queen cells in one of our new bee hives we had a meeting of the Aberystwyth Beekeepers Association. We therefore turned up at the meeting, along with my iPad loaded with a photo of the queen cells so that we could get some advice and opinions from other...
Just over a week had passed since our first hive inspection and after our walk at Ynyshir, the sun came out, the wind eased a little so we had a perfect window of opportunity to make our second hive inspection. We were hoping to find that the bees had built out comb on a few...
Since we’ve been planning to keep honey bees, we’ve also been trying to make the garden as bee-friendly as possible. The idea was to plant bee-friendly plants, but still keep the garden looking nice. We wanted it to be a nice place for bees and humans alike. Sounds easy really, we like flowers, bees like...
We carried out our first proper hive inspection on Friday, on both our hives (Clettwr and Leri). As new beekeepers it was all very exciting but seemed to go pretty well. The plan was to go through the hives, try to spot the queens and if possible mark them, see if the bees had started...
We’ve been watching our new bees coming and going and they certainly seem to be bringing back quite a bit of pollen. This is of course good news, but although we have a pollen chart I don’t think that identifying the pollen is going to be easy. The pollen chart really only shows the colour...
An important aspect of successful beekeeping is that of keeping accurate records. It allows you to know what is, and has been, going on inside your hives which in time should provide useful data that will help you manage your stocks more effectively. From your records you should be able to tell what has been...
For the last session of the beginners beekeeping course we’ve been doing with the Aberystwyth Bee Keeping Association (ABKA) we had a hands on hive inspection at Ann’s Aipary. Alan was off doing the Dyfi Enduro so Morgan and I went without him. It was really windy at our house and our new nuc of...
We’ve been watching the hives on and off over the last few days. I think the bees have settled into the relaxed way of life here in Ynyslas. They don’t seem to really get going until midday but are then pretty busy all afternoon. Both hives have been lively whilst the sun is out and...
Don’t worry I won’t post these every day, but as the bees have now been here for a couple of days and the wind has eased I thought I’d watch them for a bit to see how they are getting on. We fed them when we housed the nucs in the hives and have since...
Our second Nuc of bees arrived on Saturday evening. This time Jim brought them around and transferred them for us before it got dark. He did exactly the same as we did though so it looks as though we got it right first time. We now have two hives in the garden with a new...
Fitness / Technology / Triathlon
Fixing the Altimeter on my Garmin Forerunner 910XT
Monday, March 17th, 2014
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