This is us collecting our swarm earlier this year. I was unable to post a picture in my old blog so it is good to show you now! This was a totally new experience for us. The bees were very obliging in being text book in their behavior! I had been expecting them to swarm due to observing their behavior for a few days before. Bees are very organized and will always swarm on a sunny day between 11 and 2pm. Do not ask me why! Ours went at 1.30pm. My son in law had been in the area and heard them. The buzzing is very loud. For a few days before, the bees send out scouts to find a new home. They will also check out a good place to settle when they first leave the hive. They will swarm every spring as they will create new queens. Only one queen can live in a hive. When a new one hatches the old one gathers some workers who will take some honey from the hive to keep them going , and leave! Ours decided to settle quite low down in our holly tree. The queen will settle on a branch and the worker bees will gather around her to protect her. This is the swarm! At this point the bees are their most docile as they do not have any brood to protect.
we were able to cut off the branch with the swarm on it and shake it into the wooden box. Provided you get the queen in the rest will follow. We left the box propped open for a couple of hours to gather the stragglers. A few weeks before we had bought a new hive having made the decision to expand to two hives. At dusk that day when the bees were settled on the frames in the box I moved them into the new hive. At this point they had already started filling the cells with the honey from the the other hive. I left them to it for the night. The next day I checked the first hive and found a queen so was happy they would thrive. The second hive I put some sugar syrup on to start them off. My approach to bee keeping is hands off. On the grounds they have been doing this for a great many years I do not interfere. I spend lots of time observing from outside and can hear lots of activity so I am sure both are fine! In Sepember I hope to harvest some honey so I'll open the hives to see what is there. I will only take honey if there is plenty to ensure the bees have enough to over winter. Any honey I get is a bonus as the main reason I have them is because they are major pollinators. We get many bee varieties in our garden and currently have tree bumble bees nesting in a dormer window. They will die off in the autumn when the queen will burrow into the ground for the winter. In the spring she will emerge and start a new colony. It has been a very steep learning curve for me having bees but very interesting too. I have been stung a few times and have lost my fear of them. They are amazing little creatures!
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A big step forwardToday has been spent finishing our second Gite. There is still a little more to do but we have moved furniture in and put up pictures. We have gone through all the kitchen stuff and made a list of things still needed. Next week we will buy all that is needed. Things like saucepans, kitchen bin, some bedding bits.
There has been some discussion about the names of the two new Gites. The original one is Le Tertre Rouge, so we will now have Le Tertre Verte and Le Tertre Jaune. It is Le Tertre Jaune that we have just about finished. As this is a little smaller than the others we will make it a bit cheaper than the other two. It feels like it has been a long hard journey to get to this point made worse by knowing that my house will not be completed until all three Gites are up and running. I am finally beginning to feel that my home will be done! I have had several bouts of depression caused by living in a building site. It is the main reason I have bouts of feeling desperate to go back to the UK. Hopefully things will now improve. Today we visited another expat to buy a fan. She has sold up and is going back to England as she is tired of all the trips to visit her grandchildren. They had completely renovated their place over the last eleven years and now have a beautiful property. It would worry me that I would regret selling something we have heart and soul to. So for now we will plod on keeping our dream alive Looking forward to the day when my home is finished. First part of my new blogWell, I have been wondering for some time how I could allow you lovely people to reply to what is on my website. Then it occurred to me how others do it and here we are! All of this techie stuff is a big learning curve for me. This came about when a forum I used crashed and did not look like being fixed. There were several regulars who missed the daily chats. So I set up my website and attached a forum. That has grown well and we are all together again. Then I thought about my blog and how I always enjoyed writing it and here we are! Life is predictably much the same here. This is our one new addition this year. No idea if it is male or female but time will tell. The hen was sitting on 9 eggs but only this one hatched. I think the weird weather had a lot to do with it. It will mean I finish this year with twelve chickens. I have now enclosed them in my back garden which I am not happy about but it is keeping them safe from the fox. I have lost rather too many chickens and ducks to the fox this year. This means my back garden is less than pretty as they scratch about and create dust baths. I have plans to acquire some more tractor tyres to create flower beds. I want to use one as a herb garden too. I currently have courgettes growing in one in the veg patch and they have done very well! The good thing about the tyres is they are free! I like to upcycle when I can. The first of many I hope |
I have lived in France for almost eight years now. In that time I have gradually simplified my life and worked at improving my carbon footprint. On a world scale there is little I can do but I can make a difference in my corner. I welcome comments but would ask all to maintain the peace that I work hard at promoting.
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