Just as well I've
been pushing myself to do the painting these last few days, as I woke up this
morning to pouring rain, I had to put my raincoat over my pyjamas to go let the
chickens out. Despite the rain they came shooting out of their house as if they
hadn't eaten for a month. Of course, since having to re-roof the run to keep the
fox out , they now have an area to go in that is under cover although today’s
rain was still coming in through the chicken wire sides of the run. None of the
chickens are laying at the moment which is a bit depressing, the two chicks are
still too young, although the Orpington has grown huge, the three ex batts have
been putting all their energy into growing their feathers back and do look almost
respectable now, Mary and Amelia have no excuse. Last year Amelia stopped
laying in the autumn and didn't start again until January so I may have to
resign myself to having to buy eggs for a while.
The quail are no better as regards laying and really it is
time I moved their cages into the garage for the winter as they are not as
hardy as the chickens. Oliver and I may go to sort out a space for them later.
At the moment we are sitting comfortably on the sofa playing Ceebeebies games
on one laptop, whilst I try and write this on another.
Yesterday, as soon as I’d dropped Oliver off at nursery I was
out in the garden. First, I did the long overdue task of sorting the bees out
for winter, feeding the hives that seemed light and removing any supers that
didn't have any stores in them. If there were any supers with honey in, then I swapped
them over so that they are now under the brood boxes instead of on top. On two
of the hives I reduced the size of the entrances by putting a wooden block in
place. I only seemed to have two of these though so I will have to buy another
three and also buy more of the metal mouse guards which are pinned into place
to stop mice raiding the honey during the winter. It is also time to treat the
hives against varroa and then, after that, I can safely leave them alone for a
while. I was encouraged at how healthy the hives were looking, all five hives
were stronger than any of the hives I had last year. I could also see bees coming in
with their backs coated in white pollen which is a sign that they have been visiting
Himalayan balsam, an invasive foreign plant which is much disliked by everyone
except beekeepers who appreciate the pollen it can provide late in the season.
It is good to know that my bees are within flying range of Himalayan balsam just
as it is good to know they can access alder catkins in February for an early
start to their season. Next year my challenge with the bees is to try to
pre-empt swarming. Although it was good experience, handling this years swarms, and has allowed me to build up to five hives, to get a good honey
harvest, the bees really need to be able
to concentrate on bringing the nectar in rather than building up a new colony
after swarming.
Inevitably, inspecting the bees took longer than I thought, and it was nearly five by the time I’d finished putting everything away but as
Oliver was spending the night with his other grandparents, I didn't have to
collect him from nursery so I was able to zip out into the front garden and do
a little more in my mission to obliterate the orange paint. Yesterday was the
turn of the drainpipe,
which copying all the neighbours I painted black.
As the
drainpipe is next to my neighbours front door, it put me in mind of the pun I
once heard on ‘I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue’, ‘Was it you who spilt black paint
outside the front door? Well go and never darken my doorstep again!’.
No comments:
Post a Comment