The next project?

I had a few minutes spare before Monday morning's priority, so I headed out to the shed and re-fitted the shelves in the shed. They are now in a much more sensible location and I get the feeling that 30% is itching to get the rest of the shed tidied and reorganised.

Monday's priority activity was a trip over to Littleton Auctions to pick up an impulse buy from Saturday's auction.  I had been browsing the lots last week and a three African hunting spears had caught my eye. I do have a penchant for spears. Don't ask me why, as I can't explain it. I just have a thing for spears*.

Our commission bid had been successful, so we headed over to Littleton to pick up our spears. I was a little concerned, as these had been purchased without viewing them. For all we knew they could be broken or dreadful reproductions. As it happens they are quite splendid and I now need to think of a way to display them at home.

We next headed over to The Valley in Evesham, as 30% needed to return a purchase. Then we headed home via Alcester, as I needed to pick up some wood filler from the fabulous little hardware store at the bottom of the High Street.

In the afternoon 30% grabbed my shop vacuum and made a start on the decades of cobwebs and dust in the shed. I mixed up some wood filler and filled the holes on the work surface of the potting bench. While that was setting, I headed up to the orchard to check on the bees.

I can report that hives #3 and #2 are both doing very well. I saw both queens and the brood nests are increasing in size. Hive #3 has about three frames of capped brood and #2 is magnificent with about half a dozen frames filled with brood.

Hive #1 is doing reasonably well, I think. 

The queen was seen and there are two good frames of capped brood. This is alright, but not brilliant. There are a couple of factors that may have slowed the growth of this colony. Firstly the old queen had been failing for several weeks which meant that the new queen was introduced to a colony with older workers.** It is possible that the older workers have now expired and the colony has contracted slightly. The colony has also been suffering from robbing by wasps which could have impacted the colony size. I reduced the entrance size a fortnight ago, and have set up wasp traps in the orchard. These measures seem to have reduced the number of wasps entering the hive.

I may transfer a frame of capped brood from hive #2 to hive #1 next week to boost the colony size

After finished with the bees I returned to the potting bench. The wood fills was now set, so I got it sanded and applied a coat of finishing oil to the top and sides.

I then retrieved my workshop vacuum and spent a very noisy half hour sucking up the dust and shavings from the workshop ... It now looks reasonably tidy, and ready for the next project.***

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* I have an Assegai that leans against the wall in the hall, and many years ago I purchased five spear heads from the same action house.  I mounted these in a box frame and I really must get around to hanging it, as it looks quite splendid.

** A worker bee lives for about six weeks at this time of year.

*** That is likely to be some tiered plant stands for the "posh" greenhouse