Bees, Flowers and Neighbours

The bees have lodged with me for over a year so far, and the only time I am aware that they have stung is during and an hour or so after an inspection.  

My roses are on the bees route, this variety has an open bloom so they can reach the centre easily.  My neighbour swears that a plum tree that he has had for years has never bore as much fruit as it is showing this year due to the girls working on it. 

This flower border Campanula cochleariifolia is on our dog walking route and we regularly see the girls visiting the blooms. 

This bush Olearia x haastii or daisy bush is in our garden and I don't remember it being so full of blossom last year.  

My girls visit my flowers, but mostly they just politely zip up and over my fence to who knows where coming back loaded up with their spoils for the Hive.   Above and below Pansies and a Clematis. 

Bees are not just for Honey, do not underestimate the wondrous work they do to our gardens and crops.

My Pet Worms - Vermicomposting

Since I got the chickens, I began composting.  I have 2 bins, a heap and several smaller wormeries to break down the chicken poop. Bin 1 has the fresh bedding and fresh chicken manure which is too acidic for worms,  I layer this with veggie peelings and paper shreddings.

  The second bin is packed full of the same ingredients but month down the line and loads of red wigglers (Eisenia fetida), they thrive in this bin which is a plastic bin with holes drilled in to allow liquid to seep and air to get in.  I turn the bin contents once a fortnight just to give the worms some air and break up any big clumps.  The third stage is the heap in the garden, I try and collect as many worms and worm eggs as I can and return them to  the bin, but I let the compost acclimatise in the heap before using in the garden. Collecting the worms and eggs is a bit of a challenge.  Sometimes I leave the compost in a trub for a couple of weeks before I use it just to allow time for the eggs to hatch and try and rescue as many worms as I can. Although they are thriving and multiplying well.

The other wormeries I have are just for fun, layers of basins in various stages of decomposition.

Inspection 19 May 2012

Guard Bees on Duty. 

Clematis

Wow, long time no sun.  I had a flying whiz through the hive last week with Mr T and cleared out some more mummies, Queen Kylie showed herself briefly. We have had a better weather week this week and its a different Hive, lots of new young bees have managed to come through and not as much chalk brood. 

They don't seem to mind the hair comb in the middle, but after all, they are girls.   

Looks like lots of healthy brood in there, hopefully they will be able to recover from the chalkbrood.

 I put the apiguard up on top 3 weeks ago, they seemed to start on it, then ignored it.  I think I will take it out next week. You can see the devastation we caused last year with the green wire holding up the combs.  We have had a lot more success this year.  No major disasters but...............we are moving to Lincolnshire soon and will have the move the hive in toto.  Still not too sure how we are going to do this.

JP thought he saw Queen Kylie on this one. I missed her. 

When I first started beekeeping, I planned on keeping meticulous records, I numbered all my top bars and had them all in order. The best plans......at least I have these pics to compare year by year. 

No parking spaces available on this one. 

Getting near the end.  Nothing major found, no Queen cells, bit of cross combing, but going in every week has made all the difference. 

This comb is about 3 weeks old.  It was the new one I put in on the advice of Mike. 

A few mummies, but nothing compared to what has been in previously.   

And a wee peek through the wind to check all is well. 

Bandit enjoying the sun, long may it last.