After successfully performing artificial swarms for the first time in our beekeeping careers last weekend, this weekend we had to return to the hives to continue the process. Although we had divided the colonies between two hives to produced a parent colony and a swarmed colony, the next step was to move the hive containing the...
At last, the weather has changed and the sun has come out. The temperature even got into double figures today, although according to the weather station it did only hit 14.6°C. It’s supposed to be nice all week as well and will make it into the high teens temperature wise. I managed to spend a...
Busy Busy Busy – We’ve been so busy lately that I’ve just realised I haven’t blogged about many of the things we did last weekend, let alone what we did yesterday. As well as the bee-keeping, moth trapping and planet watching that I did blog about, we also spent Sunday outdoors. First we went to...
It’s still really cold here, crazy cold in fact for the time of year. Daytime temperatures are only just breaking into double figures and with a cold wind more often than not it feels freezing. We’ve got the fire on again at the moment despite the fact that we are well into the second half...
We had a good couple of days at the weekend. The sun came out on Friday and I managed to get one step ahead of the weekend by mowing the lawn and tidying the garden. Not a bad start to the weekend and with no Scouts & Explorers this week we had some time to...
The second half of our night-time science experiments didn’t go so well. After the success of viewing Saturn, we put the moth trap out. I wasn’t expecting loads of moths in the trap as it has been so cold lately, but with clear, fairly dark skies, light winds and temperatures only dropping to 6°C I...
The veggies are all coming on well. The purple sprouting broccoli is providing us with plenty of delicious purple florets that are not only tasty but have to bee good for us too. The wind isn’t helping the beans at the moment, but if the courgettes continue as they are at the moment we will...
In addition to the Spring flowers in the garden and the blossom on the trees which the bees seem to be enjoying, there is some fantastic foliage around at this time of year too. The lupins are full of vigour. The Spirea is on fire.
I put the moth trap out in the garden last night, but there wasn’t sign of a single moth in or around the trap this morning. Mind you, with temperatures down to less than 3°C and day time temperatures still struggling to get into double figures it really doesn’t feel like May out there. I’m sure...
Cool, it looks as though we have successfully cultivated diamonds in the garden – They are growing well at the moment. Trouble is, the bees are onto them already and have started mining them!