Category Archives: Smallholding

A comparison of bottle cappers

Posted on May 14, 2018 by james

For many years now my favoured bottle-capping tool has been this two-handed capper that I bought longer ago than I can remember: It can be a little awkward and isn’t ideally suited to employment by a handy young assistant, but … Continue reading →

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Checking on M’aidez brew

Posted on May 14, 2018 by james

After a week in the fermenter I checked my recent brew. Fermentation still looks to be going on at a reasonable rate: And a quick check with the hydrometer shows it’s got a bit of a way go to yet: … Continue reading →

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“May Day” brew

Posted on May 8, 2018 by james

I’ve been meaning to get back out to the beer shack for a while but there have been so many other things going on of late that time has escaped me. This bank holiday weekend however I put aside a … Continue reading →

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Old Speckled Hen bottled

Posted on August 16, 2017 by james

Much of this evening was spent in the beer shack, bottling the “Old Speckled Hen” that I started the weekend before last. It wasn’t ready to bottle last weekend, so I left it a couple more days and got it … Continue reading →

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First brew in a while

Posted on August 12, 2017 by james

I’ve not had the opportunity to spend a day in the beer shack brewing for a while and stocks are running low (for some values of “low” 🙂 so last weekend I decided it was time to get some more … Continue reading →

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And they still don’t…

Posted on July 30, 2017 by james

Hoping that 9pm would be late enough for the bees not to be interested in leaving the hives I went out and started mowing again, only to find them pouring out onto the front faces of the hives almost immediately. … Continue reading →

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Honey bees don’t like suede

Posted on July 30, 2017 by james

Or so it would appear… This afternoon I’ve been mowing the grass where I walk into the apiary. I always wear my bee suit when I do this just in case, though I’ve never had a major issue with the … Continue reading →

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Incubating eggs, Day 29

Posted on June 6, 2017 by james

No longer incubating of course, but about a week after they hatched the chicks are in a larger area to give them space to run around whilst they’re under the heat lamp. In all we had twenty-one hatch, but sadly … Continue reading →

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Incubating eggs update, Day 21

Posted on May 28, 2017 by james

Well, they’ve been arriving thick and fast (and somewhat noisily) today. Fifteen so far I think, with another three eggs that have pipped though it’s not easy to tell looking through the lids. Sadly we also had one Marans that … Continue reading →

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Incubating eggs update #2, Day 20

Posted on May 26, 2017 by james

Well, he (or she) wasn’t hanging about. We have a hatched chick! It’s not a great photo unfortunately. I’ll get a better one tomorrow when we move it out of the incubator after it has dried off. One of the … Continue reading →

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