CLA Game Fair

We'd not been to one of these before but as it was at Blenheim Palace which is only a short drive away we thought it would make a good family day out. Boiling hot day but well worth the visit.

This fair is huge! You can't possibly do it all in one day and I think its best to work out what you want from it and tackle it that way. It appeals to a wide range of people. Sports men and women as there was clay shooting, fishing and other country sports. Shopping from clothes and hats to cars, quad bikes, guns and fishing tackle. There was a food theatre - shame we missed Mary Berry - as well as a big arena and demonstrations of all aspects of traditional country life. We tried to do a little of everything if we could but I know there was plenty we missed just due to time and tired feet.

We each took home something different from the experience. Tim especially liked the falconry displays. Beautiful birds and knowledgeable owners. This photo is of an American bald eagle

Russell and I had a go at fishing and afterwards were presented with simple fishing rods. Russell is keen to take up the sport now which is wonderful! I could see the meditative quality of sitting quietly mesmerized by a river or lake, regardless of whether one caught anything or not.

Lawrence preferred archery. He's the small person in the middle of the shot in a checked shirt and jeans. He hit something with his first shot. I've been e-mailing archery clubs for him since as he'd like to take this further.

In spite of a hot and crowded day everyone was polite and kind. Dogs were well looked after with lots of watering bowls by stands. There were tractor and trailers to get you from car park to fair and little golf buggies at mini bus stops in case you were tired of walking. It was very well organised.

It wasn't cheap to get in but we felt as a family it was better value and more fun than a plasticky old theme park and with much less queuing!

Bees latest

They now have smart addresses. We needed to be able to identify hives and know which ones we were talking about so Steve kindly got posts and proper brass numbers. They'll want post boxes and hanging baskets next.


The above photo was half way through a messy but enjoyable Sunday. Some of our recent honey harvest contained honey made of oil seed rape. This sets hard and can't be got out using the usual spinning method of honey extraction. So we used a pratley or uncapping tray. It has water and a kettle element in the bottom half so that the honey and wax from the frame both melt and flow in to a clean bucket. I'm using a double strainer to remove as much of the wax as possible. Its a 10 litre bucket but its now half full of honey.

Can't bottle it yet ( beekeepers term for pouring it in a jar) since rape seed honey sets spoonbendingly hard. So we need to leave it to do so in the bucket and then use a big whisk thing on the end of a drill ( boys toys!!! They'll be pleased) to whip it up in to creamed honey. This is an opaque honey but its not set. But pleased with the quantity!

Bee Update.

Bees are doing very well. We fed them again at the weekend with more sugar and water syrup as we need to keep encouraging the colony to grow and helping them with a little food boost is the way to do it. Steve the other bee-keeper in our apiary went on a bee disease awareness day at the weekend and discovered that a notifiable disease called European Foul Brood was in the area and as such the Bee Inspector needed to look through our hives to make sure this hadn't spread. This was scheduled for Tuesday. I was fairly confident that as our hives were newly split and as foul brood disease is found in brood ie eggs and larva and we didn't have much of that currently then we'd be fine.

The inspector checks everything of course so he's also looking for poor management, siting, and general health and upkeep of the hive so a slightly tense time. Steve was able to be there for the inspection as Tim had meetings and I had school sports afternoon. He was able to phone us when it was over.

The inspector liked the site very much and was interested in our plans to make it a wildlife haven. Our hives were found to be disease free and full of gentle and kind bees. Almost no smoke was needed. We'd split them as you read before in to two hives each with a virgin new queen. Steve and the inspector were able to spot that both queens had obviously been on their mating flights and both were now laying queens which is what we wanted. Frames of eggs and brood were counted which is the evidence we'd been looking for. This means in simple terms that we now really do have two hives. Really pleased about that!

We shall continue to feed them over the summer as we need to build two strong colonies to face the winter. But its relief and excitement all round as our own personal aim to have more bees has been achieved.

Evening walk photos - wordless post

Micro-Blogging Post 2

Eric at Gardenfork tv (which is a podcast along with Real World Green you can get on itunes) has kindly highlighted our blog, in particular about the bees and you can read here. http://green-house.tv/forum/topic/show?id=1359573%3ATopic%3A15628 (hope the link works for you - one can never tell with these things)

Thank you Eric!

Micro-Blogging Post 1

Have had the most awful fluey cold bug over the weekend and have only gradually returned to normal over the last couple of days. Curious that with little physical voice I didn't want to blog either - had I lost my written voice as well?

The Bee PR dept is up and running

So the first full day for the bees was yesterday. (can you spot the difference between this photo and the one on the last post? - answer later!)

Tim had the day off so post school run we went up to see the bees. Its lovely to have the chance to just watch them coming and going. They have to orientate themselves and adjust their little internal sat navs. Bee gazing is something everyone should do.

I've become determined to show fellow allotment holders the bees. Since they've been so kind in letting them be there I think it right that they are introduced. Although the bees are in a discreet area of the site I wanted folk to know where they were. No beely surprises if its not your thing. So during the first day I wandered up and down the site and spoke to the gardeners as they worked. Some are wary of course - that's fine. I don't expect everyone to be as fascinated by bees as we are. But some positive responses so far.

We returned in the afternoon primarily to feed the bees which involves adding an extra layer with a feeder in it which we fill with sugar syrup. So the hives look taller now in the photo. Since there were two allotmenteers up there on the safe side of the fence anyways watching they stayed to watch the 'show' Did I say bee-suits aren't flattering; there is no 'good side' when you're in them. Our audience admitted to being fascinated - with the bees not us in bee-suits.

Walking up there again both tonight and last night for a look and flower pick from the plot and talking again to the bees new neighbours; I think already they have been more than accepted and a bench to watch them has been requested.

The area they are in will be turned in to a wild life friendly area and we are in discussion as to what that should contain ( pond - yes but where exactly? hedges - what mix? shrubs/flowers - which ones ? ) which will be a fascinating project.

Picking lavender over on our plot this evening I was struck by the synchronicity and symmetry of finding our own bees foraging on our own grown lavender. That felt deeply special to me.

Talking to Lynne this evening; she feels something has changed with the bees arrival. I think she's right.

Bees have a new home!!

Sunday saw our bee - keeping experience and confidence go up a level or two. We'd been talking about moving them to the allotment for a week or so, once Steve and Lynne had secured permission for bees to be there. Fenced off and cleared their new quarters were ready; it was down to the bees being ready now.

Sunday morning Tim and Steve set off to look at the hive in the field. Lots of queen cells ( in spite of me removing 3-4 last week). Queen cells mean that they are thinking of swarming and although there were plenty of bees, no sign of our existing queen. As a clipped queen she shouldn't have been able to go far but our guess is that she swarmed with her followers around her. Unable to fly herself once she was out of the hive we guess she was lost under it in someway and the bees realising she wasn't amongst them returned to the hive without her. She's Rhiannon, so since her story is associated with the summer solstice perhaps she decided this was her time to move on. Without going in to too much technical detail a queen was found wandering around and Steve marked her and removed her to his pocket for safe keeping for the afternoon and another one was left in the hive. A full super of honey was safely bought home and it awaits bottling but looks a good amount.

Plans were then hatched for the evening Bee Removals Inc. With plenty of bees and two queens it was decided to split the hive in to two. This will literally give us two hives for the price of one and is a way of increasing stock. An artificial swarm process.

So Sunday evening Steve and Tim returned to the bee field and separated the hive in to two, put a mesh over the entrances so no- one could get out and strapping each hive up put them in to the back of Steve's landrover.



Then having phoned home to let us know all was safely gathered in they set off towards the village. I meanwhile walked up to the plot with the boys, and met Lynne up there so we could be the bees welcoming committee. Have to say it was a lovely sunny evening. I also encouraged a couple of villagers we met along the way to come and watch the new arrivals as well.

Its a smooth (but heavy) job to lift two hives in to their new positions on the hive stands on the allotment. And then the mesh could be removed and the bees allowed a glimpse of their new surroundings.

Lynne had bought mead and said a few words to welcome our new friends. She encouraged us to think about how bees work together in harmony and how we could learn from them to live in community like they do. We toasted the bees, wishing them fruitfulness and passed the mead horn.

It has to be said we owe a huge thanks to Steve and Lynne for their work in securing the area for bees and getting it ready. The aim is that this should be a community apiary and they will have their own bee hives in there as well as soon as they can. We'd learnt a lot in our first year as beekeepers but our knowledge and confidence just went up a level over this weekend. Thank you (cos I know they read this ;-) )
and the mead is wonderful! Cheers!

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for reasons that will become apparent in a while. I thought I should put this somewhere. Should be fun !!!