Thursday 1 May 2014

Quick post about the bees

Hello All
After a REALLY  busy week I realise that it is over a week since I posted ! (and this one is going to be a quickie as we get ready for another fishing trip to Cornwall)
Where did the time go?!
 Much of the week has been spent outside. After the bees swarmed last week we looked through all our hives and saw that they were so strong that we had to fit supers on five hives. We have been keeping bees for over forty years and we have never had such a start to the year. I guess we will be spending a lot of time either trying to prevent the bees swarming or collecting the swarms if/when they do! With luck we should also get some honey.More importantly we should have a VERY good fruit year as the trees are covered with bees as soon as they are in blossom.
On Monday, B (shared lives guy) and D.were about to riddle some more compost for potting on some tomato plants which I hope top sell and I was about to go to the fodder rooms and collect EGD dog for "Doggy day Care" at ours and the phone rang. Our godson's bees had swarmed and he was the other side of Chesterfield on a job he couldn't leave. His sister was keeping her eye on them to see where they landed while we set off poste-haste to collect them.  They landed in a very tricky place on a fence, about 12 feet from their original hive, but after some maneuvering we finally boxed them and left them there for GDS.
I know I have said this before, but to remind you, You can't just move bees a few feet, you have to move them a couple of miles or so, leave them in that site for a day or two and then move them back to the site you want them to stay, which might only be a couple of feet away from where they started.
 It took us some time to gather the bees (and EGD's dog!) so we had to rush back as it was time for B. to go home. After putting our stuff away, exercising the dog, feeding the lambs etc etc we had a hasty tea and set off for the AGM of the Canal Society. On the way home we looked at our phones and there had been several missed calls from  GDS. D. phoned him back and said "Hope the bees are okay, bring them over to ours if you want to move them back to your other two". "Ah! " said GDS "I've been trying to ring you to ask if it is okay for me to bring all three hives over for a couple of days while I sort my bee site out.  I hope you don't mind, but I have bought them  over tonight while you were out."
So that's TEN hives in our front garden at the moment! And very nice friendly bees they are too.
Yesterday, as a thank you, he bought us a trailer load of logs .. Nice!

While we were at the meeting a member asked us if we could take their four hens that they can no longer keep. "No Problem" says D. and arranged for them to be bought over the next night. We put them in a small separate house that opens onto the main run and so far so good they haven't been given too hard a time by the others (there is plenty of room) As three year old virgins, they are a little "surprised" by Hugh, the cockerel, but as he has plenty more women to see to he isn't bothering them too much while they get used to married life!
There is much more to tell, but I need to get on with some letters for the Civic Society and get the house and animals ready to leave for YD to look after while we are in Cornwall. Ooh yes, and this afternoon we are going to look at some stoves as we need to get cracking on replacing the living room fire - I'm very excited by this.
We hear that the fishing hasn't been good this year. I'll let you know when we get back.
All for now
Gill

22 comments:

  1. I'd love to keep bees but, don't think my housing association landlords would be keen!
    I also want to keep hens.....I can dream1
    I'd love to go fishing in Cornwall too lol!
    I must e-mail you privately re what I mentioned a few weeks ago too.
    Where does the time go?
    Happy fishing!

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    1. How frustrating that you can't keep a couple of hens at least.
      Email me on frugalinderbyshire@gmail.com when you have time

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  2. Ah Bees...... I should have taken-up beekeeping when I was much younger.

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    1. Lots of mature (ahem) people take up beekeeping you know!

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  3. So no fish but plenty of honey, so that's OK. Hope you have a good time in Cornwall again ( she says enviously)

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    1. Given the choice I would choose the honey to be honest.
      I am hoping to get time to visit the charity shops.

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  4. Was lovely to hear all your news such a busy life

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    1. Thanks for commenting Shirley. Some days are busier than others!

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  5. I am having quite a lot of bees in the garden at the mo, due to my small fruit trees and my nieghbours larger trees. Have even been ejecting them from the kitchen. Use to have 3 hives when we lived in Leicstershire.Hope the lambs are getting on ok. enjoy Cornwall.

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    1. Will you consider keeping bees again?
      The lambs are doing okay so far, thanks for asking.

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  6. I know nothing anout bees and Im not really keen on honey either, but my daughter in law is going on a bee keeping course quite soon as she loves the idea. I hope the fishing goes well, have you any charity shop visiting planned, you usually manage a few bargains while in Cornwall. Enjoy your trip xx

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    1. Bees are really important to agriculture so it is always good to hear that a new generation of beekeepers is learning the craft.
      Yes I am hoping to visit the charity shops in Callington. It is rare for me not to get a bargain.
      Thanks.

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  7. What an incredibly busy life you two lead. Isn't it a bit early for bees to swarm. I thought May was the time (A swarm of bees in May is worth a load of hay and all that). I know it is May now, but it wasn;'t earlier in the week, although the weather was quite warm here, so maybe that triggered it.

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    1. May is more usual for swarming to start, at least here in the Midlands. This is the first time we have had a swarm this early AND had to put extra space for bees and honey (supers) on each hive.
      I think the warm winter and spring has given the bees a good start.

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  8. Aren't you as busy as a bee! ;-) Just imagine all the honey you'll harvest. Yum. Happy fishing.

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  9. Bees weren't on my jobs list for this week (like you - in your last post- I was going to have a go at some housework) but they are our responsibility so everything had to wait while we attended to them.
    I'm half hoping we don't catch much. as it will entail much filletting and such like preparing the fish for the freezer!

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  10. Lots of bees here in the South of France this year. Yesterday evening the Acacia tree near the washing line was really humming - it is a big tree so the flowers are high up. I couldn't see any bees but I could definitely hear them! My sage plant in the pot next to the door is in flower and is also covered in bees.

    I definitely prefer honey to fish!

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    1. Herb-wise our bees love the thyme, sage and borage flowers. The wisteria that covers half of the house is in flower too, which they love.
      Thanks for commenting syrahsuzie
      we are just back from fishing and now have some fish in the freezer.
      Gill

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  11. Wow, that's a lot of bees! Have a good time in Cornwall x

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    1. Thanks Bridget. We are back now with a reasonable hawl of fish.

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  12. I love that you've been keeping bees that long. Now I need to look back through your posts to see any you've written on bee keeping. So often information on the internet is written by folks who have some knowledge and little experience. I appreciate that they want to share, but it's the folks with experience that really have something to say. I learn most from them. :)

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    1. In truth, the longer we keep bees the more I realise we still have much to learn. It is also clear that there are as many attitudes to keeping bees as there are beekeepers ! Bees are both simple and complex and we can learn much from them. I am sure I have written about our bees before somewhere in my blog
      Gill

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