Category: Hobbies & Pastimes
I’ve been thinking recently about queen selection within the honey bee colony. Ideally, if we are selecting a queen to rule a strong, healthy, productive colony we want one with characteristics such as high fecundity, disease resistance, longevity and one that raises bees with a good temperament. The perceived wisdom when re-queening following an artificial...
It was the last day of Half Term and finally I had a day that I could spend with Morgan. So, after a few chores around the house and a little bit of work we headed up to Pendam for a mountain bike ride. Morgan wanted to head out to Nant y Moch, but I wanted...
Cute Hey! The new visitor to our garden. He / She has been here for a few days and seems to like it. Trouble is I did see Robbie our cat heading off with one firmly in her jaws the other day so I don’t think it will last long in the garden. I...
Bank Holiday Monday proved to be perfect weather for beekeeping. Fortunate really as we needed to check on the status of our bees following the recent manipulations. It was sunny, warm(ish) at around 16°C and not too windy. First on the list were the two hives in the apiary at the bottom of the garden....
Despite the soggy weather and the fact that the lurgy had me feeling well and truly under it, Anna and I managed to get a bit of work done in the garden on Saturday morning before rain stopped play. The rain eased off by the evening but it was still pretty soggy out there, so here...
Our priority this year with beekeeping is what beekeepers term ‘making increase’ that is to say we want to end the year with more colonies than we started so priorities are focussed more on splitting hives, rearing queens and increasing the number of bees we have rather than on honey production. Plans are afoot With...
Just a quick update on our bees now that Summer is on it’s way. We currently have two colonies, Leri and Clettwr and both seem to have made it through the winter. Our plan this year – if you can make ‘plans’ when beekeeping is to make increase. That’s to say we want to split...
Sunday afternoon was supposed to be a Beekeepers Meeting with the Aberystwyth Beekeepers where we had planned to take a look through Ann’s hives. Unfortunately the weather was in a particularly uncooperative mood. My day started with an easy swim in Machynlleth. I couldn’t do my usual run as my sciatica is still a little sore, so...
Whilst on out walk from Talybont to Borth with Scouts on Friday night, Morgan and I came up with a new idea for a series of geocaches. We crossed quite a few bridges over the River Leri and decided we could hide a cache at every bridge over the river. After some research with the...
The garden is beginning to look nice ready for summer. I neglected it a little last year as there just wasn’t enough time to fit it in with all my training and everything else, but I’m determined to get it looking good again this year. This is especially true as it’s our 10th wedding anniversary...