Looking Good

I have given up wrestling with my conscience about using bamboo canes. I dropped in at the garden centre at Newton Regis on my way back from Cannock and bought a couple bags of canes. When I got back home I loaded up Degsy with Bee keepery stuff.

The job today was to find out how the bees have responded to the artificial swarming last week. At first glance bees are coming and going from all three hives so that was encouraging. I smoked the hive and popped the roof off. This the hive that has the queen cell. It was nice and busy but there were few foragers which is what is expected. The queen cell has been torn down. That makes me think the new queen has emerged. It will be another week until she is mated and starts laying. In the mean time the bees are emerging leaving empty cells for the queen to use. A few drones have been trapped above the excluder. They made a right noise when they were released by me breaking the hive down. I put another super on the hive seeing as how the bees had been drawing comb.

The middle hive, the one showing no signs of swarming last week, is still the same. Lots of bees and lots of new comb. I put a fresh super on the hive and poured some syrup onto the candy that they have not yet finished off. The bees are mad for the candy. There is lots of new comb, bees and new honey. I put a fresh super on just in case.

The end hive that had the old queen was my main concern. There are plenty of bees. The queen has laid all the free cells but the bees have not been able to make new comb fast enough so it was no surprise that there are new queen cells. I have a few day to puzzle out what I am to do. I think I will use the new queen cells to make a nuc [nucleus]. I dribbled syrup on the candy to loosen it up. Again the bees were all over it. The bees are drawing wax be not in the right place or fast enough. I reassemble each hive as I was done with them. It was a bit breezy today but the hedges went the worst of the wind off the open hives. The clouds were gathering over Clifton Campville. There were a few showers about and even whilst I had the bees open I could feel spots of rain but the shower passed by. I packed up and made my way back to Degsy. Degsy was looking good sitting in the meadow which is covered in grass eighteen inches high.

Back at home I swapped out the bee gear for allotment gear. I took the seedlings and canes up to the lottie. A prolonged shower wafed over the village. I made a brew whilst I waited for the rain to pass. As the sky brightened up I went over to the lottie but it was late afternoon so time was short for what I wanted to do. I hoed and raked the area that was to have the climbing french beans. I dug two parallel trenches and tossed in some of the compost I had dropped on the plot a few weeks ago. I also turfed in a half wheelbarrow of manure. I back filled the trenches and ran th erake over the area to tidy it up. Next up was to set up the canes for the french bean. I selected the strongest ten canes and set them out along the trench in pairs. I fixed the tops together then fixed diagonal canes to brace the frame. After that I planted out the seedlngs and just for good measure I sowed two french beans seeds beside each cane. To finish with I gave the rows a good soaking. My time was up so a I packed up, cut a few stalks of Asparagus and went home.

I got a lot of items ticked off my things to do list and with luck more of the same tomorrow.