A lot of beekeeping

The main event this morning was Whiffler's second follow-up appointment at the Vet's. We were seen by the surgeon who performed the operation and he was absolutely amazed by how well Whiffler was healing.  We will have a further appointment in four week's time, where the Vet will carry out a digital examination, presumably to see whether the cancer has metastasised. For the moment all we can say is that he seems to be doing remarkably well, and the daily dose of Metacam is doing wonders for his mobility.

Now on to the bees.

I am fairly certain that I am on the record that, as a beekeeper, I spend my time worrying about my colonies. In the winter I am concerned about starvation, Varroa infection and colony collapse. In the summer my concerns switch to swarming, whether they can find enough forage, and whether the colonies are being managed appropriately.  

Last week I split one of my colonies and added supers to all of the hives. So, for the past week, I have been wondering whether I have done the right thing.  I know that new queens are available to purchase, so I have a back up plan if my new queens fail to hatch or mate. My other concern has been about the availability of local nectar sources for the bees.  

In my daily wanderings I make a mental note of what is coming in to flower, so have seen the celandines come and go. The bluebells and cowslips look lovely at the moment, and the blackthorn is already in flower. The damsons are just about over, but I can see that the apples will be flowering within the next few days.

The lingering question is, "is this enough to produce a honey crop?" 

This afternoon I wandered up to the orchard to check the hives. The first thing I did was to transfer the nucleus colony, created last week, to a standard National Brood box.  The queen appears to be laying, and she now has plenty of room to expand. More syrup was added to the feeder to enable the workers to build out the foundation in to fresh comb.*

I then moved on to Hive #1 and was delighted to see that the workers had already moved up to the super, cleaned out the cells, and had started to store honey there. The super was nowhere near full, but was noticeably heavier than when I added it last week. The colony is doing well and I could see no signs of swarming, so the hive was reassembled and I moved on to hive #2.

Hive #2 was split last week, so it is currently without a queen. It needs to be left for at least four weeks, for the new queen to hatch and start laying, so I did nothing other than check a couple of frames in the super. Again, surplus nectar was being processed, and stored as honey.

Next it was on to hive #3. It was showing early signs of swarming when I inspected it last week, so I was prepared to split the colony, with a nucleus box ready and waiting. I removed the super, noting the presence of stored honey, and started to inspect the brood box. I soon found capped queen cells, and focussed on finding the queen.  She was located quite quickly and transferred across to the "nuc" along with three frames of brood, a frame of stores and a couple of frames of foundation. The nuc was relocated to its new position in the apiary and hive #3 was closed up, leaving the swarm cells to develop, and hopefully, produce a new queen for the colony.

Nuc #2 will need to be transferred to a National Brood box in a week's time, so I spent the rest of the afternoon assembling a batch of frames.  

This evening I found myself at Redditch College restaurant in the company of 30%, Mummy Sheila, 'Chelle, Tracey and Grubby Sue.  It was a Greek themed menu and the food was great. The company was brilliant too, and we had a very amusing evening. I think the prize comment was made by Grubby Sue ... She advised that she had shaved her legs and then noticed that she hadn't made a very good job of it. Apparently her eyesight is so bad that she hadn't noticed that she hadn't removed the safety guard from her razor!

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* The nucleus colony has six frames. The National Brood box has eleven, so the bees have another five frames of foundation to draw out in to comb. This is unlikely to be a rapid process. They need warm weather and a strong colony to do this

Yi Jin Jing

It will come as no surprise that this morning started with a walk with the dogs.

My plans for the afternoon were swiftly redrafted, when the rain started and graduated in to thunder storms.

As a consequence 30% and I settled in front of the television and watched The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert.  Although we have seen stage productions in recent years, it has been many years since we last saw the film. It is a great movie!

This evening I returned to the PEC for the start of the Summer Tai Chi term.  Kung Po Fran took us through a warm up and the Spring sequence before introducing us to the Yi Jin Jing set. Apparently there are ten movements focused on strengthening muscles, joints and tendons. 

Fran demonstrated the first five this evening and it was really enjoyable. It's been three weeks since my last class, and it was great to be back. I keep forgetting how much I enjoy it.

Nearly finished

Tuesday was a day of two halves.

The morning was taken up by a walk with the dogs.  It stayed dry, but, again, the weather has turned very chilly.

In the afternoon I put on a coat and hat and headed out to the carport, where I applied a second coat of oil to one of the gates. 

That is one gate almost completely finished. I just need to coat the underside of the bottom rail, and it'll be ready to hang.

So, it wasn't the most exciting of days, but at least I'm a step closer to finishing the gates.

It's a dogs life

The week started with a trip to the Vet's. It was Whiffler's post-operative check-up, and I can report that all is going well. There are no signs of infection and he seems to be healing well.  We have another appointment booked for Thursday when we will be seen by the Vet that operated on him.

The only problem that I can see is that Whiffler seems to have developed a taste for pate, and I have my suspicions that we may have made a rod for our proverbial backs. 

Let me explain. Many years ago we discovered that the easiest way to get a dog to take a pill was to smear it in a glob of pate. It would be wolfed down with none of the ridiculous pantomime of attempting to poke the pill down the dog's throat, and it then being spat out moments later.

Well, Whiffler currently needs to take antibiotics twice a day, and he also needs to have a dose of anti-inflammatory pain mediation after his evening meal. The latter medication must be taken on a full stomach. We have, therefore, been using pate to ensure he takes his medication, and eats a good meal. Now Whiffler always was a very intelligent dog and I am bloody certain that he is now refusing to eat his food until 30% has stirred in a good sized spoonful of liver pate!

I think his meals may now include pate for the rest of his days.

Later in the morning we headed over to Littleton to pick up a Record bandsaw that I bought at Saturday's auction.* I was a little apprehensive, as it was bought unseen, but it seemed quite tidy, when seen in the flesh. We soon had it stowed in the back of the car and were heading homeward.

Early in the afternoon I headed out with Hobson and TB for our usual walk. Pete the Beekeeper was pottering in his garden, so we stopped and chatted for a while, before I headed home across the fields.

I then headed out to the workshop, where I spent a couple of hours assembling my new saw's stand and marrying the saw to its base. I cleaned the rust from the cast iron saw table, and gave it a coat of tool wax, before I attempted a few test cuts. It seems to be working really well, although the fence needs adjustment and I had purchased a mitre fence before I retired for the evening.

Some spare blades might end up being bought too!

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* 30% placed a commission bid

Let's do brunch

Our relationship with Bubbles and Bobbyn, actually just Bobbyn, has cooled recently.  She is hard bloody work, so we have avoided meeting up since well before Christmas. 

It therefore came as a complete bloody surprise when 30% arranged for us to meet up with them for breakfast this morning.*  This irritated me for a couple of reasons.  Firstly, I am a strong believer in letting sleeping dogs lie, so why the hell did she reignite a relationship that was hopefully waning? Secondly, I don't like eating at odd times.**

I'm 62 years old and for a good chunk of those years I have taken a light breakfast at around 7.30 in the morning, I eat a sandwich at midday and we have our evening meal a little after seven in the evening.  I do not want to wait until ten o'clock in the morning to break my fast. By that point I will either be fucking starving, or will have already eaten a slice of toast to avoid feeling famished. 

A similar thing happened last week when we went to the Lygon Arms for afternoon tea. It was another oddly timed meal that was too late to be regarded as lunch and far too early for my dinner.

I really dislike these oddly timed meals like brunch or afternoon tea. They have a tendency to become extra meals rather than rescheduled meals and they totally mess up my blood sugar control.

So, brunch was fine, apart from the fact that I would have preferred to eat it at home about two hours earlier.  

We arrive home a little before midday. Obviously I was stuffed with bacon and sausage, so I wheeled out the mower and trundled around the lawns at the front of the house.  This was in the vain hope that mowing less than a quarter of an acre would go some way to counteracting the caloric overload from this morning.

Final accomplishment of the day was to hang a tapestry in the Inglenook in the living room.  This wasn't hugely complicated, but I did need to fabricate a hanging rod from an old curtain rail.  We're both delighted with how it looks in situ, and it finally means that I don't have to look at that bloody bread oven.***

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* We ate at a cafe/restaurant on the site of the Evesham Golf Club. I can't remember the name of the place and I really can't be arsed to Google it. The food was great, the service was good and the decor made it look exactly like every other cafe/restaurant that you have ever visited. Why am I not enthusiastic about the place ... It doesn't take a massive amount of skill to cook a full English breakfast and serve it with a cup of coffee!

** There was a third reason ... the inevitable post match analysis, where each and every utterance from Bobbyn is analysed, and not in a positive way.  For the record, I don't disagree with the analysis, It is just a reiteration of points that we have discussed before.  As I said at the outset, "Our relationship has cooled recently."

*** At some point in the history of the cottage, someone installed a bread oven door in the Inglenook.  It was never operational and simply installed for visual effect. Unfortunately they didn't make a good job of it and, in my humble opinion, it made the Inglenook look really unbalanced. If I am honest I really didn't like it and was sorely tempted to rip it out and brick up the aperture. Until I get sufficiently motivated to do that, we have hung a lovely tapestry of a caged unicorn in front of it. It works so well!

A bit of mowing

30% had arranged a Theatre Day in Birmingham with 'Chelle and Mummy Sheila. They headed off a little after nine o'clock, leaving me home alone for most of the day.

This morning I did what any man would do, when not under the watchful eye of their spouse ... absolutely nothing, other than ablutions, a little light reading and imbibing coffee.

There was a bitter breeze once again, making me very reluctant to seek jobs outside, but the lawns really did need attending to.

In the early afternoon I donned coat and hat, and spent a couple of hours mowing the lawns at the back of the house. They now look much tidier, but, as soon as I had finished,  I was very keen to retire, make a hot drink, light the fire, and plonk my arse in front of it.

Whiffler starts his recovery

Whiffler, understandably, took a long time to settle last night, and was not up to climbing the stairs. As a consequence, both he and 30% spent the night in the living room.  I was informed that, at one point, 30% was sharing the sofa with both Whiffler and TB!

I woke early and took over dog care duties and can report that he seems to be recovering well after the operation and anaesthesia.  30% retired to her bedroom for a couple of hours to catch up on some sleep.

This morning I headed out for a walk with Hobson and TB. Our outward leg was down the lane, and we returned across the fields. We had another close encounter with the Fallow deer, and, again, TB needed to be gently persuaded to duck under the stile.  I'm quite puzzled about his lack of comprehension. Hobson nips under it without a thought, but TB just looks at it, like I am expecting him to climb over the top like a person.

In the afternoon I headed out to the carport with brush and can, and applied a coat of oil to the second gate.  I can now report that they both need one more coat before they can be hung.

I omitted my usual weather report, so I should mention that it was bloody chilly today. I needed a coat to keep me comfortable while I was attending to the gate, and a fire was lit as soon as I was back indoors.

Ouch!

Today was the day that Whiffler had his operation.

30% took him in to the Vet's, while I headed out with Hobson and TB for our usual walk.

It was significantly cooler today, and the weather and our schedule meant that very little was removed from my to-do list. I did add a feeder to the nucleus colony, and I also had an appointment at the surgery to review pain management for my stenosis symptoms.

The GP confirmed that my self-mediation was appropriate, but he also recommended that I refer myself to NHS Physiotherapy for guidance on appropriate back exercises.

The Vet called in the early afternoon to advise that Whiffler was out of surgery and could be collected at four o'clock.  The operation had gone well, and the Vet seemed quietly confident of a positive outcome.  We are well aware that the cancer may had metastasised,* and that Whiffler is an old dog, but we are hopeful that it will give him another year of good quality pottering and sniffing.

Shortly before four, we headed up to the Vet's to collect Whiffler.  We were briefed on his post-surgery care, drugs were handed over, and follow-up appointments were made.** Then the old fellow was brought out.  He seemed quite perky, but he was a bit wobbly. This was totally understandable when we saw the site of his surgery. You might have heard the phrase, "tear someone a new arsehole." Well, it looked like that was exactly what had happened to our poor, old dog.

Ouch!

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* Anal gland cancer can metastasis through the lymphatic system and take hold in the spine causing a variety of nasty symptoms.  

** I almost forgot to mention that the best part of nine hundred quid was handed over too. I'd also paid the roofers this morning, so it was quite an expensive day!

Just in time?

Wednesday was always going to be quite a busy day.

Our local roofing company turned up promptly at eight o'clock,  and spent most of the day giving the roof a touch of remedial attention.  The main job was to replace the cement flashing at the base of the chimney with lead flashing.  They also attended to the cement haunching around the pot, and repointed parts of the chimney.  The chaps advised that the job was definitely overdue.  They also attended to a few loose and cracked tiles, and a couple of dodgy ridge tiles.  

We are aware that we will need to have the cottage re-roofed at some point, but this remedial work will keep us watertight for a while longer yet.

Mid-morning saw me head out for a walk with Hobson and TB.  We took our normal route along the lanes to Pete's house, before returning through the fields.  

TB is now quite happy about the footbridge, and both he and Hobson charged across and headed right along the hedge line at full speed.  I followed behind and looked to the left, our normal direction of travel.  The idiot dogs had totally failed to see a group of six or eight Fallow bucks about sixty yards away.* I called the dogs to me, and they still hadn't noticed the deer.  I soon had them back on their leads and watched as the deer jumped through a gap in the hedge and headed off.  The rest of the walk was uneventful, as I selected a route that headed in the opposite direction to the one chosen by the deer.

Today was forecast to be warm and sunny, perfect conditions for my first inspection of the hives.  In the early afternoon I put on my bee suit, lit my smoker and headed up to the orchard with a trolley laden with queen excluders and supers.

I started with hive #1 and was delighted to see that it was filled with bees. There were at least eight frames with brood at various stages of development and I even managed to locate the queen.  There seemed to be some nectar being stored and I was surprised by the large amounts of pollen being packed away too.  I added a queen excluder and super to the hive and returned the crown board and the roof.  This hive had not seemed to be as active as the other colonies, so I was expecting something similar, or perhaps more impressive from the other hives.

I moved to hive #2 and gave them a good puff of smoke before opening up the colony.  It was filled to bursting with bees. There were so many, considering that many would be flying on such a fine day, that it was difficult to check the frames for brood, disease or signs of possible swarming.  I inspected as carefully as I could and soon saw signs that the colony was preparing to swarm. I saw a few queen cups, and encountered open queen cells as my inspection progressed.

I didn't want a strong colony to swarm so I replaced the crown board and headed back to the store room to collect a nucleus box and some spare brood frames. I had made the decision to perform a split of the colony, and planned to relocate the queen, a couple of frames of brood and plenty of nurse bees to the nucleus box.  The only problem with that plan was that it entailed locating the queen in a hive that was filled to overflowing with bees.  Fortunately the God of Beekeeping** smiled down on me and I managed to find her ... at the second attempt.

I assembled the nut with a couple of frames of brood, a frame of stores and a couple of frames of foundation. I shook in a couple of frames of nurse bees and moved it about six feet away from its parent hive. I'll add a feeder tomorrow and give them a couple of litres of sugar syrup. That should encourage the workers to start building comb on the sheets of foundation.

The parent hive will now be left for at least four weeks in the hope that a new queen will hatch, mate and start to lay ... I just hope that the weather stays fine and that there are sufficient drones in the area.

Hive #3 was similar to the previous hive, but not quite as advanced in the development of swarm cells.  This was fortunate as I do have another nucleus box, but I had no spare brood frames available.  I continued with my inspection and was very happy with the state of this colony too. I'm just well aware that it will need to be split next week, unless the buggers swarm beforehand. 

I spent an hour in the workshop this evening assembling a batch of brood frames and can also report that I have made contact with a Beekeeper in Studley, who may have a couple of buckets of honey available ... watch this space.

So, in case it isn't clear, the title of today's Journal entry comes from the fact that a) we seem to have had the chimney repaired, b) I managed to restrain the dogs, and c) I inspected the hives just in time.

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* They were originally a hunting dog. My two obviously didn't get that memo!

** Apparently it's Aristaeus.

That's quite enough for today

The plan for today was to bottle a couple of batches of honey.  I set to work straight after breakfast, and soon had the first batch clarifying in a hot water bath.  

I also realised that today's honey bottling efforts would leave me with only about twelve pounds of honey in the bucket.  I have reached out to a couple of local Apiarists for a new supplier of bulk honey, but have yet to find anyone with any spare.  I even reached out to a chap in Monmouth, who had thirty buckets available, but he had sold out already!

I took the dogs out for our usual walk in an interval while the honey was liquifying.* We, again, headed out to Pete's house and returned across the fields. I can report that Traitorous Bastard is becoming far more confident in crossing the footbridge across the stream. Perhaps the troll has moved on, or has decided that the local Fallow deer are a more tasty treat?

The afternoon included a short snooze on the sofa, before I headed out to the carport.  TP had given me a hand to turn the new gates around, when he was here at the weekend, so I was able to apply a coat of protective oil** to the other side of one of the gates.  I hope to have them ready for installation shortly.  The only tricky task will be getting access, so I can oil the bottom rail of the gates.

I had planned to perform the first full inspection of the hives this afternoon, but the weather was quite breezy, so I decided to leave that until tomorrow.

I was also quite tired after what had turned out to be a busy day.

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* This last batch from Pete has set like concrete!  Previous batches have been thick and viscous. This honey has set hard and breaks apart in chunks after considerable persuasion with a spoon.

** Osmo UV Protection oil

Afternoon Tea

It's Easter Monday and there were hordes of walkers out and about.

I headed out with Hobson and TB and we took our normal walk as far as Pete the Beekeeper's house. On our return we, again, cut away from the road and headed down the footpath across the fields.

Traitorous Bastard was slightly less apprehensive of crossing the footbridge, but was totally confused later when he was expected to duck under a stile.  Hobson dipped under it with barely a break in his stride, but TB just stood there looking bemused.  I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that he is a definite Townie with no understanding of our Country ways.  TB was eventually persuaded to duck under the stile, when I grabbed his collar and gave a gently tug.

This afternoon 30% and I headed over to the Lygon Arms at Broadway. We had been gifted a voucher for afternoon tea by Bubbles and Bobbyn and we had made our reservation for four o'clock.  I grew up less than three miles from The Lygon, but have never before visited.  It had a reputation, much as the rest of Broadway does, of being filled with International* tourists. I can confirm that this little Cotswold village lived up to its reputation and was very busy in the early Spring sunshine.

We settled ourselves at our table and had rather splendid afternoon tea. There was endless tea or coffee, a variety of sandwiches, scones with jam and clotted cream, and a selection of cakes and gateaux.  There was plenty to eat and neither of us had any complaints, although we had researched the cost of this gift, and I'm not sure that we had consumed ninety quids worth of food!** 

So that was it for Easter Monday, apart from one thing ... as the day drew to a close I noticed that my stenosis symptoms seem to be slightly improved. It's could be just that I have had a good day, but I am hoping that it may be easing, as it did after a few weeks last year.***

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* My Dad used to refer to them in a dismissive tone as "Yanks" or "Bloody Foreigners" 

** About four years ago we were gifted a Champagne afternoon tea at The Grosvenor in Chester.  It was unbelievable!  I have never eaten nor drunk as much in an afternoon and we both rolled out of the hotel bloated and tipsy.  I haven't a clue how much it cost, but it did make The Lygon's fare look rather penny pinching.

*** It played up a few weeks before I went on the Black Forest motorcycle tour, and subsided slowly over the following weeks.

Have we found a Troll?

Today is 30%'s birthday, so the day started with coffee in bed, followed by the opening of cards.

We spent a leisurely morning pottering around the house and TP turned up just after midday.  We all lunched together before TP and I headed out for a walk with the dogs.

We headed out as far as Pete the Beekeeper's house, and then turned to head home. On a whim I decided to head homeward via the footpath across the fields,* rather than my normal route along the lanes.  After a few hundred yards we came to a footbridge over the stream.  Hobson and The Rat charged across it, and headed off in to the next field.  Traitorous Bastard stepped on to the bridge and froze!  For some reason he was very perturbed by the wooden slats of the deck and would not cross. I tried calling him, but he was having none of it.  In the end I put his lead on and gave him a "heel" command.  This seemed to work and he crossed the bridge. His nervousness was still apparent, but at least his willingness to comply with the heel command overrode his apprehension and nervousness about the footbridge.

TB comes across as quite a confident dog, and this is the first time, since he came to live with us last May, that he has demonstrated apprehension on one of our walks.  In retrospect it is quite possible that he has never walked across a footbridge before today, or perhaps he sensed the presence of a Troll?**

This evening we headed over to The Arrow Mill for 30%'s birthday dinner.  We were a little apprehensive, as we had not eaten there for many years after receiving indifferent service and a truly terrible dessert.***  On this occasion I can report that the food was lovely and the service was great.  The terrible dessert was still on the menu, but I made a different selection.

So, I think we all had a relaxing Easter Sunday. It was nice to have TP join us to celebrate 30%'s birthday.

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* We have had reasonable weather for a while, and I was hopeful that the fields and footpath would now be dry underfoot. 

** They do, after all, like to take up residence under bridges

*** It was a coconut panna cotta that had a horrible grainy texture.  I abandoned it after one mouthful and did advise the waitress that it was terrible. She just shrugged and carried on clearing the table.

On the go

 Today I seemed to be on the go from the start.

After breakfast I headed out to choose a birthday card for 30% and get some fuel for the car. Normally I would have said "fill up the car," but the price of diesel has sky rocketed as a result of Trump and Netanyahus' little exercise. Consequently I shoved forty quids worth in the tank and preyed that sanity might prevail .... fat chance!

On my return I headed out for a walk with Hobson and TB. We returned with just enough time for me to have lunch before I was out again.

I spent a blustery couple of hours at Cotswold Shooting Ground attempting to hit some clays.  I was not very successful and my score was a paltry 36/80.

I headed home and settled on the sofa for a restorative nap, before lighting the fire and settling in for the evening.

In retrospect, I may have been "on the go" for a lot of the day, but the only worthwhile achievement was  the selection of a suitable card for 30%.

An Arsehole

 So, yesterday's Journal Entry was about Whiffler's arse cancer. Today's entry is about an arsehole.

Both 30% and her nephew, Oswald celebrate their birthdays in the first week of April.  30%'s brother always arranges a joint party as an excuse for a family get-together, and today was the day. 

The little gathering was fine. A great spread was laid on the table and Oswald was engrossed with his cards and gifts.  The family assembled and pleasantries were exchanged.

Everything was as agreeable as it could be,  considering the fifty two year age difference of the birthday girl and boy, and the very cramped conditions of the venue.  

Everything was going amicably until the black sheep of the family turned up ... 30%'s half sister.  Now I could go on for several pages about what a complete waste of fucking skin this individual is, but I will simply record one of her utterances that shows what a fucked up parasite she really is.

She was bemoaning the fact that her upcoming hip replacement will mean that her benefits are likely to be reduced, and went on to tell us exactly how much she manages to extract in benefits. The taxpayers among us were horrified when she announced that she had received a back payment of several thousand pounds in sickness benefit and advised that, "she had worked hard for that money."

Basically the lazy bitch's definition of working hard is filling in a few forms and blagging about her health.  Her poor health that is a result of years alcohol and drug abuse.

She's not an arsehole, she's a cunt!

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* She can still go to the gym regularly and seems to exhibit no mobility issues.