Honey Flow

The last two weeks have been quite busy. We have had several swarms of bees to catch and another load of honey to extract. The field of rape behind us has certainly paid dividends. So far we have extracted more honey than we collected for the whole of last year. The picture shows a swarm of bees congregating at the bottom of the garden. Once they are in a bundle we get the swarm catcher and cut off the branches and the bundle falls into the catcher. We empty them into a skep then turn it upside down, onto a white sheet, propping one edge off the ground and then empty the rest of the bees onto the sheet. Gradually they all go into the skep and later in the day transfer them into a nucleus box. We have run out of hives at the moment and waiting for new ones to arrive before we can transfer them into there new home.

We were involved in a farm open day last weekend and did a display about beekeeping. We had hoped to take an empty hive to display but when Geoff went to collect it he discovered another swarm had settled into it and made themselves at home. We have six hives at Redlands now. These are quite small colonies therefore will not produce much honey from them this year.

On a sadder note we are having a lot of misfortune with the chickens. They decided to become cannibals and pecked one to death and the dogs have now found a way into the coop and killed two more. Just one left, poor thing. Alistair sold some of his pigs last week so we are hoping to get the place cleared out and use it for the chickens. The house is more substantial than the coop in our garden so should be better and more dog proof.

The sheep have been sheared and look very strange without their woolly coats but much tidier.

Silage making has begun and Alistair and David have been very busy when the weather is suitable. Some of the grass will be made into hay as well.

We have had a revised quote from e-on which is much more acceptable. We have to wait 12 weeks before they can come and do the work. The electricity has to be disconnected from the house before we can demolish the house. This means no action until September but hopefully the planners will have an answer for us by then as the planning has gone to the council for the new house.

Let the Honey Flow!

It is all systems go with the honey. We have extracted 36 frames today. Having a field of rape behind us has certainly kept the bees busy. It took us all last years season to produce the amount we have taken out today. Next job is to put it into jars label and start selling.

Alistair has been busy at Redlands with sheep shearing and hopes to begin silage making later in the week if the weather improves.

The plans for the house are nearly ready for the planners and we are hoping by the end of the week they will have gone into the council. No doubt the planners will take their time giving us permission.

A swarm in May is worth a load of hay.

Work has continued with the water supply. Now we have water in the main tank we needed to pipe it around to different locations on the farm. Alistair and his friend have worked hard this week digging up and laying pipes to water troughs and pig sties. No more water carting from Home Farm.

We have the batman's report and he has informed us that we do not have any bats. That's a relief as this could have delayed the house demolition.

We have finally had a quote from e-on. As we expected it is somewhat hefty so we are in the process of seeing if we can find an alternative route for the mains. The architect is going to look at the drawings and see if he can position the house so that the existing pole can still be utilised.

We have now put 5 nucleus of bees into the orchard. The beekeeping has been very hectic this week as we have a colony which are trying to swarm. We have taken off our first lot of honey for the season. There is quite a lot still to come as several frames were nearly full but not capped off therefore not ready to take from the hive.

Batman & Robin!!

This week has been somewhat busy. The puppies have begun obedience training. All Lass wanted to do was bark at the other dogs. This was the first time we had heard her bark. The first session was learning to sit, down and walk to heel.

The architect came to see us with revised plans. We are getting ready to put in for full planning permission for the house. He informed us that we needed to have a bat survey done. Geoff made enquiries and received several quotes ranging from the cheapest at £200 to £1500. We could not believe the difference. Needless to say we went with the cheaper quote. The 'batman' has written several books about bats and quite an authority on them. He has been and carried out the survey and we are waiting for his report.

Ironically the person doing our water supply

s called Robin. He has been and installed the pump and we now have a full tank of water.

The pigsties have doors and nearly ready to move the pigs into. Geoff has made the doors fitted them and needs to finish painting them.

Our livestock is slowly increasing. We now have four point of lay chickens. There are two brown, one white and one black. Alistair and Mary organised them as a surprise. At the moment they are in a chicken coop in the garden but will be moved to the farm.

Wildlife in abundance

Although Redlands has suffered many years of neglect the fields are full of wildlife. It is great to see the skylark hovering and then swooping down into the grass. Their singing is beautiful and one could listen for hours. Along with the skylarks are pheasants partridge and down in the farm buildings the House Martins have returned. There are at least four pairs swooping around the yard.

The stands for the water tanks have been erected and ready for the tanks. Hopefully they will be in and ready for filling by the end of the week.

We have heard from the local council who are very non-committal. They haven't given much away at all except criticise the number of bathrooms the plan has. Hopefully when they have seen the full plans and our covering letter they will be more supportive.

We managed to hire a breaker this morning to break through the floor and wall of the barn and link up with the trench. The bricks were really hard and even with the breaker it was a struggle to get through. Quite reassuring to know that one building is structually strong.

Progress on the trench went well today and we have managed to cover the water pipe with sand, add the electric cable and fill the trench in.

Next job is to build brick pillars, add railway sleepers onto them ready for the water tanks. We will be having two tanks, one for the farm and one for the house. Finally new pumps will be fitted and we should have our water supply.

Trials and Tribulations

The last two days have been eventful to say the least. Yesterday began with a visit from the National Grid. The helicopter had flown over the gas main the previous night and noticed our trench was going over the top of the pipe. They informed us that they should have inspected the site before we began work. We explained that we had contacted them asking them to come out and that they had replied to say we could go ahead. He was very understanding and told us that he had not been given the message and appreciated the fault at their end. He inspected the trench and told us we had to let them know when we began to fill in again.

Alistair was getting on really well when the digger decided to break down. Our local mechanic soon went out and got him going again. There had been a blockage in the diesel filter.

Our next problem was trying to find the electric cable for the gate. We went very carefully and found a pipe. We thought this was the electric cable and were really pleased that we had found it without damaging it. Unfortunately this wasn't the case. Alistair began digging again this morning and came across the cable. Unfortunately it was damaged, we should have known things wouldn't be that easy. The electrician came out this afternoon and repaired it. The trench was finally completed, Alistair has done a really good job. Sand was put onto the bottom and the water pipe has been unravelled and laid. We are about 10 metres short of pipe and cannot get any more delivered before early next week. Alistair has managed to get a friend to help him and has begun to add the next layer of sand on top ready for the electric cable to be added.

We have managed to get a bonfire going in the orchard and start to burn all the dead wood and rubbish that was in there. We are trying to prepare it for setting up an apiary and hope to get five hives set up before the summer.

We contacted the architect this afternoon to find out if there was any news from the Council. He has been chasing them up and the reply he got was, 'We are still considering it'.

The vet has contacted us and the puppies have been put onto a particular anti-biotic as they have finally diagnosed that the pups have a bacterial infection called campylobacta. Hopefully this will kill off the infection and we will not have any more problems.