Bizzzzy Times







Friday 27th April 2012



Thursday 26th April 2012







Well, the weather continues in the same vein, so after work it's been dashes down the land to check for eggs and throw some food at the chickens and pigs. Often, they're nowhere to be seen, the pigs all snug in their ark and the chickens huddled under the tractor. Some have even started going to roost very early, clearly fed up with being sodden and windswept.

If the weather were more conducive and the soil more friable, at this time of year I would be working the land until darkness made further exertions impossible. As it is, we're snuggled up by the fire instead.

30000 busy little critters
Last weekend we delivered the brood box from our old hive to the beekeeper in Long Sutton, so that he could transfer a colony of bees into it. We had to do an emergency order of hive carrying straps which were dispatched very quickly (http://www.simonthebeekeeper.co.uk/) - not a good idea to risk the bees getting out in the car!
So at 7 this evening, the moment we had been waiting for finally arrived. We called to pick up our new lodgers. They were in a very dopey mood and a few stragglers crawled around on the crown board. The chap who sold them to us was very friendly and helpful, and even gave us a tenner off, as the bees have struggled to build up a store of honey in this dank weather and will need sustaining with sugar syrup for a while.

We left the hive blocked up for the night, ready to introduce the feed and open up the front door in the morning. It will be good to don the bee suits again after a bit of a gap.