The Tale of the Wild Pig.

Friday 10th August 2012

The rape field, as it appeared this morning.

The Tale of the Wild Pig.
Speak to any farmers around here and they'll tell the tale of the last occupants who took delivery of a group of weaners and on the first count were one down! Seven months later a pig, somewhat larger in stature, turned up in a nearby farmer's field. As far as I know, having looked after itself for all this time, it unfortunately could not be captured and had to be shot.

With this tale in mind, every time we move the pigs from the stables to their pen, there is a fear that they will overshoot and break through the rather flimsy chicken wire which we place to deter them going off into the meadow and out into the big, wide world.

So for the past few days, bit by bit, I've been constructing this...

I am very happy with my the result.
It will make moving the pigs much less stressful as, once I've completed one last bit of fencing, there'll be no way for them to effect an escape (famous last words!).
This will be tested out shortly, as Gerald is about to head off to stay with his owner having done his job here.

Good news from the bee hives
Meanwhile, some very good news on the bee front. Sue has been moving frames of brood from hive to hive, trying to keep up with the bees' insistence on swarming. The original queen (easy to spot with a white mark) seems to have departed, or to have been usurped. But finally we have young brood (eggs and larvae at various ages) in both hives. The bees have been out and about this week, so hopefully there will still be time for both colonies to build up enough strength to get through the winter. The rape is long over, but there are plenty of bean fields around and they are beginning to find the flowers in the veg garden and herb bed too.
This week there have been a good number of peacock butterflies around too, and while mowing a track through the meadow I came across a good number of grasshoppers. I sometimes wish I had a little more time to stop and admire them.

Again, apologies for the lack of bee pictures, but Snappy cam has finally returned from its adventures in Hong Kong where it went to be fixed (it has been there and back twice due to a paperwork glitch in customs) so next time we inspect the hives there will be piccies.