Our weather seems to come in month-long blocks now. I guess it's something to do with how the jet-stream has been disrupted. After bone dry April we have May downpours.
And gosh we have had some downpours!
When we arrived back from London Sue came across our first bee swarm of the season and it was an absolute monster! We were half expecting it as we found queen cells in a few hives when we inspected them. Muggy May days seem to be when we get our swarms. Sue had just managed to take us down from ten hives to eight by amalgamating weaker hives, but this swarm needed a whole hive to itself.
In general the bees are doing very, very well at the moment, though it looks like we won't be getting much early honey as it's been a cool year so far.
Poultry News
The ducklings and chicks are growing fast, but they do make a mess! So when we can they go onto the lawn for the day. It won't be long before they need an accommodation upgrade. We're not quite sure where they'll go though as the stables are taken up by geese and turkeys. We'll sort something out.
The young turkeys are doing really well too. We lost one to a sad accident, but all the rest survive, fingers crossed, which is actually really hard to achieve with turkey poults. Quite a few are spoken for so we just need to keep hold of them until they are old enough to leave their mothers.
