To Fondant or Not To Fondant ?

In the winter beekeepers are advised to heft their hives to gauge the level of stores. If the hive is light then the advice is to feed the bees with fondant- a boiled icing that the bees can access readily instead of having to process like the syrup that is fed in autumn or spring. Here I have followed a recipe that boils together sugar,water and glucose syrup, once 240F is reached the fondant is kneaded until malleable. This can then be packed in to trays and put directly over the hole in the crown board .
The question now is when is the optimum time to put the fondant on - but I at least have a couple of blocks ready if the time seems to have come!

Lasting Legacy

This weekend we visited Clumber Park- a National Trust property about 20 miles from home. Last week we had driven up but the park was closed because of the heavy snowfall. We have regularly visited the park over the last year, being especially interested in the walled garden which has been renovated and has a great range of fruit and vegetables. It also is one of the properties which has introduced bees to it's gardens.
As we drove through the park it was upsetting to see the extent of the damage - not just branches but whole trees had been broken down by the weight of the snow and ice.
The Cedar Walk has about 20 ancient cedar trees leading to the walled kitchen garden- they are amazing trees- or they were! The trees were completely devastated ,the crowns and branches split and cracked. Some clearing had already been started, but it looked as if some of the trees would not survive and have to be felled.

It occurred to me what would happen to the wood from the trees- the best beehives are made from cedar and I would hope that the National Trust may use the wood usefully-perhaps a sustainable lasting legacy. Hopefully the walk will be replanted but it will be many years before such a fine display will be seen again. So many trees destroyed may not be such an obvious consequence of the disruption caused by the present spell of bad weather but it is certainly one from which it will take along time to recover.

Bring Out Your Dead!!!

Today the temperature reached nearly 10 degrees up the garden today. It was a relief after seeing dead bees round the entrance of the hive in the snow to find bees flying. They were very busy -and seemed to be enjoying the chance to get out after nearly 2 weeks of temperatures below zero. Bees will not defaecate in side the hive, so in winter they need days like this to take cleansing flights and clear out any dead bees. Obviously over this period of cold, lots of the older bees that had manged to keep going because of the milder temperatures in November, couldn't keep going any longer. During the day the pile of dead bees grew and grew- eventually reaching maybe a thousand or more. It was fascinating watching as the bees brought out the dead bees and went about their housekeeping- keeping going until quite late in the day. 

Winter Wonderland

It seems that the whole country has been gripped by an early winter,with amazingly low temperatures, snow and ice. The country looks beautiful but has bought an added worry about the effect of the snow on the bees.
The temperature by the hive at around 10 am was -1C, the hive covered with snow, but the entrance was clear and astonishingly a bee flew out while we were there. I'm not sure whether to worry about that or not!!

Fungus for Free?

At this time of year fungi are appearing everywhere in the moist autumn woodlands and grass. These are just one type that have sprouted in a corner of our garden. Over the past year or so we have seeded various areas in both the allotment and garden with spores from mushrooms in the hope that some would decide the conditions were just right for them!
So do we eat them? Although I have consulted the excellent Food For Free by Richard Mabey I am just not confident enough to tuck in!!

Changing the Clocks

It is the time of year when the clocks have gone back and the nights are drawing in - I was led to believe that I would not be seeing the bees until Spring, they would be in the hive huddled up against the winter weather. And yet on this November day there they are ,out and about, bringing in loads of pollen! As you stand near the hive the smell of honey is noticeable and I cannot heft (lift) it off the stand. A good sign- plenty of stores to keep them going!

We have noticed how this year is a 'mast' year in which the trees and shrubs have produced a bumper crop of berries- does this mean, as the old wives say, that it will be a hard winter? Who knows? There have already been more records this year of Waxwing arriving on our shores from Scandinavia than all of last year. This usually happens when the weather has turned severe and there have been strong easterly winds.

And yet today the temperature was around 15 degrees at lunchtime!

Dead Bees

The recent drop in temperature and heavy rain has had quite an effect on the bees- they have not been so active and outside of and on top of the hive there have been a sprinkling of dead bees. They are whole bees so it is not likely to have been robbers,when there can be body parts from the attack- it seems as if they had been out foraging and taken by suprise when it turned cold and wet ,then just couldn't make it back!

Brace Comb

As today was lovely and sunny and the temperature by the hive was 25C we decided to go into the hive to take out the second Apiguard treatment and remove the spacer eke for the winter. It was meant to be a quick removal- so I didn't light the smoker and almost didn't put on my suit because I thought the bees would have started to hunker down for the winter. They have been busy in the sunny spells taking in lots of variously coloured pollen- an indication that the queen is doing her stuff by keeping the colony on track.
Well, when the roof came off the bees poured out- the hive was absolutely heaving- we were amazed to see that the space on top of the frames in the eke had been filled with brace comb ( honeycomb that the bees make on their own in any space they can!) which was also filled with honey! As this was unexpected we decided the only thing to do was to remove the Apiguard tray and leave the eke in place so the bees still had the extra stores they had collected, then maybe try to get some advice about whether we should remove the comb now or leave it until the spring.

Robbers

This time of year beekeepers are wary of robbers- other bees, woodpeckers and wasps which are on the look out for easy honey or food. They do their best to protect the colonies by reducing the entrances so the pests find it hard to get access but they still try!!

September on the Allotment

All the potatoes have been gathered in now- there have been fantastic crops of French beans and we are struggling for space in the freezer to store the amount of raspberries, blackberries and other soft fruit. As we have cropped the beds green manure has been sown to strengthen the condition and fertility of the soil. These are left until the beds are needed and then dug in.

Recently on a visit to Sissinghurst they had sown Yellow Trefoil and then companion planted with squash to help with feeding and moisture retention for the vigorous squash plants. We have various varieties of squash this year and try them in a three sisters bed- sweetcorn, borlotti beans and squash together- as well as in raised beds. These potimarron were a favourite last year and kept really well in the cool dark garage. hopefully this year there will be a few to store again- we still need some more good growing weather to ripen them yet!

Autumn Bees

Back in the hive after the 1st Apiguard teatment things look good- there are less then 100 mites on the varroa board and its been on for over 2 weeks. From what I have read this is quite a low count so it looks as if the bees are doing well in this respect! The brood box is really full now, with activty on all the frames- as well as a  respectable amount of stores. Brigit is still busy with plenty of new eggs - I'm not sure if this is OK as at this time of year things should be slowing down in terms of brood. The new bees emerging now should be the 'winter bees' which will live for the whole of the winter and start the colony going in the spring next year if all goes well!

Bedding Down

This is the time of year we prepare the bees for winter- we have been feeding the bees with sugar syrup prior to treating for Varroa mite so the bees stand a good chance of coming through the winter as a strong colony. It is reccommended that a colony has about 60 lbs of stores to survive the winter, although we can feed with fondant during the winter if necessary, it is best to have a good amount of strores to set out with. After putting  the varroa floor in the hive we have monitored the drop for the past few weeks- the weekly count has been about 20- apparently not too bad for this time of year. Nevertheless we will be putting Apiguard on at the next check to get rid of some of the mites before evrything settles down for winter.

Where do they go?

We have planted our garden with a range of plants that are insect friendly- at different times of the year they provide nectar and pollen. So, at the top of the garden live our bees- the garden is full of butterflies, bumble bees ,hover flies and other ,mostly welcome insects. But hardly ever have we seen honey bees foraging around the garden, just the odd one on the buddlea or golden rod. So where do they go? Maybe the answer as Rob (picture courtesy of sustainablegarden.blogspot.com) suggests is the allotment. The borage, lavender and other herbs have recently been visited by honeybees in abundance-in theory the distance is within range; so maybe this is where they are doing their good work!!

Filling Frames

The weekly inspection went well today- the frames are filling up with loads of capped brood, eggs, larvae and stores. The bees are on 8 frames and drawing out one of the others, hopefully getting stronger and stronger all the time. There is no real honey forage crop at the moment so not much chance of a crop of honey this year,which we didn't expect, but you can always hope! Today we sprinkled icing sugar between the frames and put the tray under the mesh floor to gauge if  or how many varroa mites there may be in the hive. We will inspect this later in the week. I have been slightly worried about the wasps which seem to be thriving in the fruit trees at the back of the hive- they are attracted by the honeydew left by an infestation of greenfly on the trees. I am not usually vindictive, but these wasps may be a threat to our bees!!So we have put up wasp catchers baited by medlar jelly- this seems to be the most attractive to the wasps! Loads have been lured to a sticky death but they still keep coming!! Any suggestions to get rid of wasps will be welcome.

Bees After 3 Weeks

After a week of watching and wondering it was time to check out the bees again!

This weekend Adam helped out - the ladies had been really busy moving on to and drawing out more of the new frames- so much so that I took out the twelfth frame I had originally put in to fill space in the brood box. They had moved on to the one sided frame I had been concerned about and Birgit was dashing around. It was quite hot so we were fairly quick but even so we could see new eggs, larvae and a lot of capped brood. Today it is raining, which is good for the garden but hopefully there is still plenty of summer to come so the frames will keep filling to build up a strong colony!!

Foraging

Last Friday we decided to have a day of picking and storing- so off we went to the allotment for gooseberries, up the garden for cherries, the PYO for strawberries- we have had a steady supply but not enough to store- and armed with secateurs to the hedgerows for elderflowers.
On the list were- strawberry and gooseberry jam, cherry tart and elderflower cordial.

 Elderflower Cordial
20-25 heads of elderflowers

3 lemons sliced

2 oranges sliced

900gms sugar

3 litres boiling water

50gm citric acid

Pour the boiling water over the sugar and stir-allow to cool slightly,then stir in everything else. Stand for 24 hours an stir every time you think about it!

Then strain through a fine seive and bottle. I used plastic bottles that had been rinsed out with milton. 

The citric acid supposedly helps to stop the cordial fermenting and prolongs storage life. 

We have tried it with chilled sparkling water and still; it is lovely and refreshing- it does need diluting quite a bit!

Red Potatoes

Rob has suggested a taste test of new potatoes at the forthcoming Allotment Soiree - so far we have dug samples of Vale's Emerald, International Kidney(Jersey Royals) ,Nicola and Red Duke of York. These Red Duke of York look lovely and do keep the red skin when cooked, although they go dull-they are much more floury than the others- very tasty, but not as satisfying as a new potato. So far Vale's Emerald are the favourite, unhappily however we have eaten them all so none left for the Soiree!!

Busy Birgit

Finally got to inspect the hive for the second time. We had put it off for a day because of the very high winds on Sunday, much better today- calm and sunny. A little smoke but all seemed extremely calm as we took of the roof and crown board. Had everything ready and there were a lot more bees than last week- as I took out each frame I made notes so I know exactly how things were progressing. Birgit had started laying on one of the new frames and the bees were begining to draw out a further two, but were leaving one side of the frames that they came on. I can only think that maybe that frame was originally too close to the others as it is not a self spacing frame and the bee space must have been a bit close. But Trev managed  to get good pictures- there was good capped brood, new eggs, stores and pollen. Birgit was easy to spot on one of the original frames but she had obviously been busy. It was exciting to look in and see what is happening- we have spent lots of time in this fantastic sunny spell just watching the comings and goings, its reassuring to feel that all looks well inside!

First Harvest

This time of year is busy with first harvests of fruit and veg- this year Vale's Emerald potatoes were grown in bags and the first ones were emptied out last week-they were delicious,easily the tastiest new potato I have eaten for a long time- it may have something to do with being on the plate within an hour of being emptied out of the earth, but we'll be looking out to grow this one again next year!

Have also been harvesting fruit- strawberries, summer raspberries, lovely tayberries and this fanatstically colourful basket of cherries- I love summer fruit!!

Bee Day

At last the day arrived (22nd June- I know ,very slack keeping up with the news!) after a seesion with Hilary at her apairy in Derbyshire I went to collect my bees. Birgit the queen and her attendants were brought home in their little box and placed where their hive would be - the little door opened and we stood and watched....
Bearing in mind that it was about 11 o'clock at night and any self respecting bee would be in bed, hardly surprising -nothing happened!
So next morning before work out we went and- bees milling around orienting themselves; very exciting!

So later that same day.......home from work and bee suits donned we transferred our precious bees from their box into the brand new hive, gave them a feed and left them to settle down. Birgit was easy to see with a bright blue spot on her back, lots of capped brood and stores to keep her going.
So over the past week we have spent lots of fascinating time watching what has been happening- finally the suspense got too much and we had to have a look!
Birgit was there- lots more new eggs, which meant she had been laying while she has been here, stores and capped bood all seemed as it should bee!
Today there seemed lots more bees foraging and various colours of pollen going in to be stored- think there will have to be a check this weekend to see whats going on inside; so will update soon!

Just June

Picked asparagus and the first strawberries on Saturday- just what summer ought to be, although now the rain is pouring down outside-this is obviously the type of summer it's going to be.We planted out the sweetcorn and squash so they have had a good watering in,hopefully they are not standing in water like last week.

Sweet Potatoes

I am always interested in trying new varieties and types of veg- sweet potatoes don't grow easily in Britain but thought I would give it a try. This method seems to be working to get them started, the tubers came from Sainsbury's and I have suspended them in water in a jar and after about 2 weeks this is the result- roots and shoots. I tried 2 tubors but the other I put in an opaque pot- that one did not shoot at first so I have transferred it to a glass jar and that is now growing away. The next step is to pot them in to compost and see what happens over the summer!(Tried hard to get a pic that did not look too rude!)

Hungry Gap

We are now well and truly into what gardeners call the 'hungry gap'- this week we finished our last stored onions,potatoes and squash. I'm really pleased with how long our produce has lasted this year- of course we still have vegetables and fruit frozen or made into jam or chutney to use.
I like to think we eat more seasonally now and in the allotment there is now asparagus to pick along with leeks, sorrel ,spinach, chard and a few little carrots-it looks as if the spring cabbage could be cut and Trev has seen a tiny cauliflower just developing!
News on the bee front- in about four weeks we should be welcoming a nuc of bees to our garden!! Can hardly wait!!!

Cheese Making

I have been interested in trying to make some cheese for a while and had gathered equipment, cultures, rennet and so on over a period of time, waiting for what seemed the right time to have a go. The easiest and quickest recipe appeared to be a soft cheese so here's how it went-
Used 2.5 litres of whole milk ,direct vat culture and vegetarian rennet.

The curds were flavoured with salt, walnuts, black pepper, garlic chives and herbs as they were put in the moulds and then left for about 24hours, turning about three or four times.

You can see how much the curds shrank as they whey drained out of them- it was easier to turn the cheese as it became more solid.

The finished cheese- very tasty, quite mild but delicious!!

Overall pleased with the result- have frozen one to see how it will keep and packed the others in the fridge, but judging by the amount we have already eaten will probably not last long!
Next time would like to have a go at a semi hard or hard cheese which will need pressing and maturing for longer.

Allotment in April

The allotment is coming on well for the time of year- some leeks still to crop, all the potatoes in and peas and beans- under cloches and nets for a bit of protection. Onions and garlic in second bed down have picked up from the winter. Today picked our first asparagus as well as carrots, chard and some sorrel for dinner.

Beeing Ready

On Tuesday we spent the day preparing the site at the top of the garden for our hive- moving and levelling the slabs and making sure there is space to work around it. Very pleased with the result although both of us tired out at the end of the day!
Next step is to put up screening on the fence at the back so the bees will fly high over next doors garden and hopefully not bother them too much!!

Garden looking lovely and some fantasic plants out -

Hepatica Nobilis

Jeffersonia dubia

Sanguinaria canadensis

Our Garden

I love the spring garden- this time of year the flowers are fantastic! The Magnolia Stellata is amazing, so bright -almost luminous,especially in the slightly cloudy weather today. The Erythroniums are out and the Fritallaria meleagris nodding above the grass.
The Trillium is amazing- this photograph was taken last year before we had had the garden done- so must take more this year and compare.

Spring is here!!

The weather has been great these past few days so have been able to get lots done in the garden and allotment. We have sown various types of squash, tomatoes,aubergines and sweetcorn. The peas and broad beans have been planted out into the allotment. We have also made a raised bed for the asparagus so now I can put a good depth of soil on top - hopefully leading to much longer spears- I can see from last years notes that we cut the first lot of asparagus on the 19th April-this year I think we will have to wait a little longer!

Getting ready for the bees, have our names down for a swarm if one comes by- hive is made and a spot picked out in the garden. Both of us are also prepared in our stylish beesuits!

New Developments

During the past month or so we have been having work on our garden done- we have needed new steps and patio for a while and decided this was a good time to get it done.
Had not realised just how much there was to do until Mat and his Dad began to dig out to create a bigger space and new steps.

Now 4 weeks later really pleased with the result- only problem is we have not been actually able to get out and do anything because of snow and ice. Today managed to clean all the windows and doors down and remove some of the dust, but patio remains icy.