The're alive!

H wanted to go to Swannington, to the village hall, to see a model railway exhibitions. Who am I to disappoint? It was really good. The club running exhibition was Soar Valley Model Railway Club [click HERE for their website]. The club's chaps wore uniforms of light blue safari shirts and club ties. H gets a kick out of the size and detail in the layouts. There were several small layouts and one huge one, 42 foot by 15 foot run by eight blokes.

H and I went over to the meadow to see the Bees. It has been a torment as one never knows whether the hives will be alive a live in the spring. The bees were alive at the New Year. They were alive even when the meadow was flooded. We drove over the fields the sun was high and bright in the sky but the wind was keen. As we chugged along the field boundary with Degsy in four wheel drive because of the slippery conditions, we could see the hedges were just in bud. The hedges looked very sparse. As we rolled up I could see that the hive was still as I had left it. The sun shone very shiny brightly upon it. The timber of the hive looks properly weather beaten. It was with some trepidation I opened the gate to the meadow and walked up to the hive. I peered round the hive to see bees coming and going off the flight board. The bees had pollen on their legs which tells me that the Queen must be starting to lay.

H and I stood there for a while and watched the ladies were flitting about. We were both a little surprised to see them flying so freely as it was quite cold. We both had our coats on with the collars up against the wind. I went up to Thorne's, the beekeepers' supplier, on Saturday amongst the few thing I bought was a pollen chart. The is divided into three parts, spring, summer and autumn. The charts lists the plants in flower in each period, in order of blossoming and the colour of their pollen. We tried to match the pollen on the bee's legs and chart. It was no surprise that the pollen on the bees was a match to Willow.

I had a job in mind for the bees so long as they were alive. As we know they are alive so the job is to put on a smaller feeder. I had made up a couple pints of syrup last night so it was cool by the time I took it to the apiary. I took the roof off, put the feeder over the hole in the crown board then filled feeder with the syrup. The roof the hive cannot sit the the feeder so needs something to support it that is the same size as the hive. That gadget is called an "eke". It is a kind of spacer. I poured a few drops of the syrup down the centre of the feeder to give the bees a clue there was something for them in their loft. The roof was placed over the eke.

We walked across the meadow to look at the river Mease which was charging along its course. It was up a foot on what I think is normal. We looked across the river and took in the sights of spring. With the sun shining towards us the blades of the Winter Barley were glowing. The next meadow had a flock of chunky looking sheep. Whilst driving across the farm, to and from the bees we saw; a big Hare trotting along, the flash of iridescent blue that can only have been a Kingfisher, a couple of low flying Buzzards, a couple of butterflies and in field across the river three huge Swans. The usual suspects abounded, pigeon, pheasant and various corvids.

It was a plesant few hours together. Finding the bees alive was weight off my mind and my pocket. I had been worrying about them for a whilst. The frustrating thing is that there is nothing you can do it influence the outcome. However over the winter I got all the beekeeping gear ready for the new season so perhaps good preparation might help set the odds in my favour.