Bees

At the weekend Dad and I went to an open air auction of bee equipment. We went two years ago when beekeeping was totally new to us so thought we'd go back this year. Knowledge makes a huge difference! It was absolutely amazing the amount of utter crap people wanted to sell - I'm talking woodworm, chunks flying off in all directions, warped, cracked and so bad that I'd think twice before even using them for firewood! I think the sellers did much better than the buyers, with cleanish wax selling for £20 than you can buy pristine wax in Thornes, nucs selling for £220 (twice as much as at Thorne's) and full sized hives selling for £340! People were paying £35 for 2009 New Zealand queens...seems mad to me, those queens have just done a season in NZ and will be tired out by now!

So anyway we may try breeding up some nucs this year with the hope of selling them next year!

We've been doing loads with the hives this week. One hive was getting ready to swarm very early in the year. We did an artifical swarm into a nuc and a full sized hive. Since then we've made another nuc, and have started breeding up some queens from all the cells they'd made. They should be out by today and hopefully making some practice flights this weekend - just got to hope for sunny weather!


Queen cell grafted onto mating nuc frame.

So, we came into the year with 3 full sized hives. We now have 4 full sized hives, 2 nucs and a mating nuc. We also have 6 queens on the way that we ordered way back in January before we got mixed up in all this queen rearing, so I don't know WHAT we'll be doing with those...maybe splitting another of the full sized hives into nucs, requeening any swarms we catch and requeening the hive that has chalkbrood (apparently genetics can play a small part in it). So plenty to do.

Dad's mentor Geoff, who has kept bees for 30 years, now has his bees filling up their 3RD SUPERS. ALREADY! We couldn't work out how he's managed it, as when we heard it ours weren't even contemplating moving up into their first supers! However, when Dad was doing some of the splits he removed the porter escapes from the coverboard and since then the bees have moved up into the super. The one hive he forgot to do it on hadn't moved up, so VENTILATION IS KEY in getting your bees to fill supers - next year we'll remember to REMOVE PORTER ESCAPES EARLIER IN THE YEAR. Now we've done it though they are working their little socks off bringing in LOADS of nectar so hopefully we'll be catching Geoff up very soon.

The bees are looking healthy and happy and I got some great photos this week...



Bees on the alighting board, the pale yellow blobs on her back legs are her pollen sacks, bulging with yellow pollen.

Bees on a comb. The majority are workers, the larger one in the center however is a drone.


Bees around a queen cup, a special cell that new queens are laid in. You can see nectar glistening in the surrounding comb.

This is our drone trapping frame. This frame is shorter than the other frames in the brood box. The bees make more comb underneath to even it out, and for some reason they like to put drone brood down there. When the drone brood is capped over we cut it off, take it home, freeze it and theow it away, to kill a large portion of the varroa population. The funny zig zag pattern is where the wires are in the wax - we give the bees a bit of wax called foundation to get them started, and the foundation has wire zig zags in it for strength.

We've done our first canoe trip of the year as well this week. It's amazing what you'll find on the canal banks - hazel, blackberry, elder and even raspberry. I can't wait for autumn foraging this year...I'm hoping it will be a good Prunus year this year so that there are plenty of sloes and damsons!

As far as the garden's concerned, it's all looking great.

The pond is looking gorgeous and green and the wildlife is going mad. We have a group of collared doves (mostly a pair, but sometimes the male appears to have more than one wife) who are getting ridiculously tame, as are the blackbirds. I try to discourage them (half-heartedly, I must admit) but they just look at me blankly.

Everywhere's filling up now, I've ended up having to interplant my celery with a catch crop of lettuce as I'm running out of space and need to make the most of the little I've got! The courgettes have been planted out in our Mango Chutney barrel planters this year though, so that will save some room.

Before I leave you, here is a gardening tip:

*ROOT CROPS*

All last year I was thinning out my radishes etc. which is bonkers. Sow as thinly as you can and just leave them. Doing it this way this year I've got the best crop of radishes I've ever had, my beetroots are for once looking promising and I've got turnips and salad onions bulking up too. Stick 'em in and then leave them, don't faf about.

I never hrow any of these in trays or modules, as this disturbs the roots too much and they never amount to anything, although I find that carrots actually do better being sown in modules and planted out when they're about 5cm tall.

The first pickings from my overwintering carrot crop - they don't look like much, but they're the best I've ever grown, and not bad for heavy clay soil!

Also do not do what I have done this year and start things off in January. It only damages them. Plenty of time to sow your tomatoes even now.

Swarm Control

Yesterday (Wednesday) Flo and I visited the bees. 10 days from last visit. The hive we thought was looking swarmy was!

A quick look showed them close to capping 4 queen cells. Plenty of drones around.

Hive is full of bees and brood of all ages. Not showing any interest in the super.

Nectar and pollen OK.

So we did an artificial swarm into a 14x12 hive. Making sure we moved the queen and NO queen cells.

Today I revisited (08:00). Bees were very easy to spook this morning. Lots of them jumped onto my hands.

Didn't get stung though.

I took one frame with two Q cells from the donor hive (Queenless since yesterday).

We now have a (homemade) nuc with two frames of sugar stores, about 50% stores on each. The rest empty cells.
One frame with 2 sealed Q cells.
One frame with sealed brood on one side. The other side has some fresh nectar.

After making the nuc I went through the donor hive and I found:
frame 2 has a sealed Q cell.
frame 3 has a sealed Q cell.
frame 4 has the two cells we saw yesterday right on the edge of a frame. One is sealed one that is not sealed and they may be tearing down.

I removed the porter escapes on all hives for better ventilation.
Flo asked for photos. I forgot.

I think we will try the mating nuc at the weekend. Taking another Q cell from the donor hive. A cupful of nurse bees, some syrup and a sealed Q cell is all that is required.

DIY Fashion

At the weekend we went to Wonderwool and the Mid Wales Mouthful at the Royal Welsh Showground at Builth Wells.

Wonderwool consisted of stalls, demostrations and even a fashion show (the "Sheep Walk") all about textiles, particularly wool, although there was also A LOT about alpacas. The Mouthful was brilliant - lots of local producers showing off their products, from birch sap wine to chilli cheese and white chocolate and strawberry tarts that looked like works of art - as well as cookery demonstrations. It was a really good day out with plenty to see.

My spinning and weaving techer Carol had a stall, and I finally remembered to buy some swing knitting needles off her. Apart from hers my favourite stall was Textile Techniques, who sell textiles and equipment from all over the world. I managed to pick up some amazing beads from Burma, Java, Thailand...gorgeous.

Carol's gorgeous handknits.

The main thing I want to write a post about however is the Sheep Walk - it was really good fun, showcasing all sorts of clothing - modern and traditional, sober and just plain weird. My fave outfits though were from two indie fashion labels, Raggedy and Wench. They make clothes from recycled materials and they are AMAZING. You wouldn't believe the stuff they create from cast-offs that you wouldn't normally give a second glance.

Raggedy and Wench's amazing recycled outfits on the Sheep Walk.

See their websites here: http://www.raggedyrags.co.uk/ and here: http://www.wenchwear.co.uk/. Both are based in Aberystwyth.

So I came back totally inspired and have been making some weird and wonderful clothes ever since! I've always hated dress making but somehow this is actually fun - perhaps because I work without a pattern, don't bother with darts etc. and just go along however I feel like it.

It's quite lucky that Mum hooks rag rugs, because it means that she collects all sorts of strange old garments and scraps. Although lots of them have already been shredded, I have access to a fairly healthy rag box full of goodies. There's everything in there from curtain fabrics remnants to vintage evening dresses...love it! It's great, it's proper recycling, and has the same magic about it as it did when I was little and it was my dressing up box.

Unfortunately my wizzy computerised sewing machine is currently undergoing surgery so I had to get the Old Banger out. This is the machine I first learnt to sew on but as I haven't even touched it for nearly five years I managed to bugger it up within the first five minutes. I think I've got it going again but I'm being gentle with it just in case.

So yeah, here are two works in progress, and some other creations-to-be.

Two dresses-in-progress: the one on the left made from an old top and a polycotton apron arrangement. Eventually this will have a big poofy skirt underneath it in lots of different shades of purple and pink. The blue one is made from old curtain fabric - it's just a length of fabric with a head hold cut in the middle and gathered at the waist...I'm thinking some flowing inserts and fraying fabric flowers.

Everything from old lining to brocade and a felted jumper.

I have an idea for an "intergrated system" too: any off cuts from sewing get rag rugged, any loose fibres/teeny tiny bits and pieces get spun into yarn = no waste! Just got to do it for real now!

We finished up our visit to Wales with an evening walk around Crick...I just love it how the mountains are constantly there in the background. It's just so different to our relatively flat corner of the Hampshire/Surrey border!

Home Made Cosmetics

Recently, I've got quite interested in making home made cosmetics. I think it must be a combination of Grow Your Own Drugs, The Apprentice soapmaking sandalwood fiasco, an article in Permaculture Magazine by Star Khechara, and the idea we've had for a couple of years but have never got round to doing: making luxurious beauty products from our own beeswax. Anyway, recently I've been looking up recipes on the web a fair bit, and today I tried it for the first time!

Of course, being me, I just suddenly decided I wanted to do it now, and went and did it: didn't bother finding a recipe, checking the store cupboard or weighing ingredients. It would either be amazing or a total disaster. "But how hard can it be?" I thought - after all my research it seemed to me that you can make just about anything from soap to lip balm to bubble bath with oil(s), water, and smelly stuff.

The first thing I did was go out into the garden and pick a load of smelly herbs: wallflowers, currant leaves, sage, lemon balm, Boles mint, fennel, chamomile.

I bunged all these in a panful of water and turned on the heat. It heated pretty gently; the water turned a cool green colour. Then I thought I'd add some of last year's lavender crop (dried) and a squeeze of lemon.

As soon as I added the lemon, the water went pink!

Anyway, I carried on heating it. It was smelling LOVELY but unfortunately I left it to boil...a stupid mistake as all the lovely fragrance vanished and I was left with an acrid and overpowering lavender scent. Oh well.

After boiling it for about 2 mins I strained it through muslin and a collander, squeezing all the juice I could from the leftover leaves.

Then I put three small ladlefuls back into the pan, with an equal amount of Tesco's cheapo sunflower oil. I turned the heat back on and melted in a few scraps of our own beeswax. After this came a fairly long period of whisking it, and being unable to decide whether I should be heating it fiercely, gently or not at all.

After a fairly long time whisking and oscillating between the three possible heat settings, I got fed up. It seemed to be emulsifying a bit, as it was turning a sort of even creamy colour, but it still looked horribly liquid. I filled a basin of cold water and put the pan in there, still whisking.

After a while longer I was completely shocked to find that it went all lumpy like curdled milk - I was just getting myself ready to throw it away! Kept whisking it, and it came out as a lovely pale, soft cream. Wow!

The 6 ladleful mixture filled about 2 jars. Having tried the cream I would say that it was a bit greasy - less oil next time perhaps, or a different sort. I'd also like it to smell nice - when the roses are out I'll use some petals, I think. But apart from that, it's pretty luscious! I'll definitely use it before and after gardening - has already completely rehydrated my cracked knuckles, and as I know that everything in it is edible, I may apply it to chapped lips too! Or a foot cream! Whatever, it's not all that bad and it's definitely useable. And the leftover herb-infused pink water concoction could make a nice addition to a pampering bath. Not bad for a first completely madcap attempt without a recipe!

My Kind of Carding

Only a short clip, but my kind of carding!

It's going to be a very crafty week: weaving lesson tomorrow, where I will finish threading up 4 shafts on my teacher's 8 shaft loom, before learning to weave. And then at the weekend I will be off to WonderWool!

I haven't done any crafting for a while, but I'm finally beginning to use up the toffee brown alpaca fleece I bought last year in Hay on Wye, mixing it with some Finn sheep wool dyed in spring greens and autumnal oranges, to make a beautiful brownish yarn with subtle changes in colour...maybe good for an warm jumper, hat or scarf. I'll put up some pics when I've finished a skein.

I'm also reading up on making cosmetics etc., thinking about what to do with last year's beeswax harvest, and I have a few ideas in the pipeline for some wearable art...now all I need is my sewing machine fixed!

Just look at the 1970s NZ beekeeper and his hive about 30 seconds into this film! Wow!

This is just one of the many videos on food security, permaculture, sustainability, self-sufficiency etc. available to watch on YouTube - have a look!

Permaculture

I notice I've been using the terms "permaculture", "forest gardening" and "Transition" a lot on this blog, so here's an explanation of what all this stuff means.

First of all, the modern take on the age-old practice of "forest gardening" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_gardening) and the Transition movement (http://www.transitiontowns.org/) both stem from PERMACULTURE, so to start with let me explain what PERMACULTURE actually is.

Permaculture (from PERMANENT and (AGRI)CULTURE) was first dreamed up in the 70s by two Australian ecologists, Bill Mollison and David Holmgren. Since then it has spread from Australia to New Zealnd, Europe and the US, as well as other parts of the world; there are projects in Asia, Africa, South America...Permaculture is still not as well known as some other environmental ideas (see the post below, Pondering Eco-ness) but in my opinion it deserves to be much more widely practiced, and could help us out of this whole load of trouble we've got ourselves in.

Permaculture started out as a model for sustainable food production - gardening and farming - although as it is a set of principles rather than hard and fast rules, you can apply it to any situation, in any climate!

Perhaps the basis of Permaculture could be summed up as working in harmony with nature, instead of against it. There are lots of green theories that claim to "work in harmony with nature" - such as organic farming, for example (although of course, this is actually working against nature, as even in organic farming you're trying to prevent nature from doing what she wants to do, by turning the land into field systems rather than allowing it to revert to natural woodland etc. but more on this later) - but Permaculture goes beyond these. It encompasses ideas from all sorts of fields - organics, conservation, low-impact living - and puts them all together.

What really distinguishes Permaculture is that not only does it work in harmony with nature, it seeks to actively imitate nature, the theory being that we can bend the rules of nature to meet our own needs. Permaculture works on the same bases of natural ecosystems: each element performs many functions, each important function is supported by many elements, etc. ( from Permaculture Association Britain's website - see useful websites below).

This is where systems such as "Forest Gardening" come in. Forest gardening is essentially producing food by imitating the natural forest, i.e. you grow apple trees, currant bushes and perenial vegetables in the same way as trees, shrubs and undergrowth grow in natural woodland. We can make our food production systems (in fact, any system) operate in the same way as nature does, and this means that everyone wins: we get to eat, and nature's happy because we're playing by her rules! (Needless to say, this takes a lot of designing, so much so that there are accredited courses you can do to help you get your head round it all!).

NB: When I refer to "natural woodland", I mean the landscape's natural climax. In Britain that means woodland, but even if you live in a desert you can still live by permaculture principles by bending the laws of the desert towards food production, etc.

However, the principles of permaculture don't just apply to food and other physical products (homes, medicine, beauty products, transport, etc). They can also apply to the way we act as communities and run our societies. The three core ethics of Permaculture are EARTH CARE, PEOPLE CARE and FAIR SHARES.

This is where movements like the TRANSITION MOVEMENT come in. The Transition movement was started by Rob Hopkins, a permaculture teacher, as a response to climate change and peak oil (the running-out of world oil supplies). It is a grass-roots movement that encourages people to work together as communities to begin the transition from the way we live now to a way of life that has less impact on the environment and that relies less on globalisation and fossil fuels.

So, as a quick recap:

• Permaculture is a set of principles that allow us to create a PERMANENT CULTURE (food, communties, etc).
• It can be applied to any situation, in any climate
• It works by close observation and imitation of natural systems
• It encompasses many different ideas - organics, societal models, all sorts of stuff

Three ways that I could implement permaculture principles starting right now are:

• Allow the chickens to go broody - it's natural for them, just go with the flow
• Allow my bees to swarm and supersede naturally (though I'd want to capture the swarm of course)
• Incorporate variety into my life - learn a variety of skills, grow a variety of plants, be versatile and be more resilient!

So there you have my brief introduction to Permaculture. To find out more you could try these websites (there is a LOAD of stuff out there and lots on YouTube too):

http://www.permaculture.org.uk/ - Permaculture Association Britain
http://www.konsk.co.uk/webmap.htm - Tir Penrhos Isaf - a permaculture smallholding in Snowdonia
http://www.permaculture-magazine.co.uk/ - Permaculture Magazine (really good)
http://lafermedesourrou.blogspot.com/ - La Ferme de Sourrou - permaculture smallholding in France (brilliant blog, I read it all the time).
http://www.pfaf.org/index.php - Plants for a Future (great for forest gardening)
http://www.agroforestry.co.uk/ - the Agroforestry Research Trust (great for forest gardening)
http://www.lowimpact.org/index.htm - the Low Impact Living Initiative
http://www.cat.org.uk/index.tmpl?refer=index&init=1 - the Centre for Alternative Technology
http://transitionculture.org/ - Rob Hopkins' site