I was wandering around a sunny garden this morning, after returning from this morning's walk. I could hear a significant buzz from the orchard and wandered up to investigate. As I walked through the gate my attention was drawn to the boughs of the large cooking apple tree, and I could see a lot of bees flying around one particular branch. Closer inspection showed a swarm clustered there.
I glanced across to the hives and I could see that the face of hive #2 was covered in bees. This was a sure sign that a virgin swarm* had emerged from this hive and settled in the nearby apple tree. I hope that there is another virgin queen still in the hive, and that she mates and returns to continue the colony.
It would not be possible to shake the swarm form the tree, so I put out a nucleus box nearby, in the hope that the virgin swarm would be attracted to settle in it ... Although I don't think I'm that lucky!
In the afternoon I mixed up a couple of batches of weedkiller and sprayed the veg patch. I then went on to remove the side panel from the Moto Guzzi.
The Guzzi's battery charger has been displaying error lights on and off throughout the winter, and it is highly likely that its ten year old battery is on its way out. I ordered a new battery, and then started to have a nagging suspicion that I hadn't mixed up the weedkiller in the correct proportions.
I retured to the potting shed and re-read the instructions ... Oh bollocks! I had totally cocked up the mixture and had applied a far too diluted mixture. It was therefore necessary to nip out to the Nursery, buy another bottle of concentrate and re-apply the weedkiller.
The veg patch now has Roundup on one half and Resolva on the other. I believe the they are both glyphosate based, so it'll be interesting to see whether there is any difference in performance.
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* A swarm contains one, or more, unmated queens
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