No dig diary, 6th May 2024: At last I can return to the veg plot

Posted on May 6, 2024 by james

Finally it appears that the weather is picking up a bit here and I was able to spend all of this afternoon weeding the veggie beds. It’s crazy how the weeds are growing. I managed to get two and a half beds done, including lifting all the volunteer potatoes I came across and separating out small “new potatoes” from the plants (some of which I then had for dinner 😀

It’s going to be a fair bit of work to get the rest of the beds done, but it needs doing before I start planting out everything that’s waiting in the greenhouse — there’s so much to go in. I even still have compost to spread because it’s been so wet for so long.

The asparagus is doing well though. We’ve had several more picks of that. On the not so good side I think the perennial kale has succumbed to the combined attentions of the deer and caterpillars late last Autumn. I guess I’ll be replacing it with something later in the year. And it’s now time for the remaining leeks to come out I think. They’re starting to go hard in the middle where the scapes are forming now they want to flower, so I don’t think there’s much more eating there.

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Memory Lane, 10th April 2023: The veggie plot clearout commences

Posted on May 5, 2024 by james

It’s time for all the “old stuff” to come out of the veggie plot now and make way for this year’s plants. Onto the compost heap it all went. Up and up went the compost heap, up and up went the temperature. This one seems to be working very nicely now.

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Fat dummies completed

Posted on May 5, 2024 by james

I was hoping to spend today in the veg plot, but the weather was back to its usual appalling self again today. I hid in the workshop and finished off my current set of fat dummies. First up was to trim down the last piece of insulation and fit it.

Still no blancmange flashbacks?

Then glue and nail the second side of the dummy into place.

I’ve done eight of these though I have sufficient top bars for another two — I just don’t have wood sized for the sides and bottoms yet. The eight will be sufficient for two colonies, as I’m moving them to “nine over nine” configuration this year — a little more brood space than brood-and-a-half, but a lot less of a pain in the bum.

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Memory Lane, 7th April 2023: A mesh underfloor entrance

Posted on May 5, 2024 by james

Having made some underfloor entrances (UFEs) with solid floors, I thought I’d do the same thing with my mesh floors. There wasn’t a huge amount of difference between the two types other than the need to cut the mesh back to size.

The mesh floors also had sliders for trays, that weren’t a particularly snug fit. I cut down some Correx to replace the trays and sealed the gap at the back with draught excluder, so any wind blowing underneath during the winter shouldn’t now get into the brood boxes and cool them down.

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A little more fat dummy progress

Posted on May 5, 2024 by james

After a full day inspecting bees I thought I might as well finish off by doing the next stage of my fat dummies, so I sliced some scrap 50mm PIR insulation board into 33mm-ish widths and fitted them into the dummies. The top slice needs cutting again, to around 40mm deep rather than 50mm. I’ll do that tomorrow.

Anyone thinking of 1970’s school blancmange yet? No? Just me?

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Busy (Star Wars) bee day, 4th May

Posted on May 5, 2024 by james

In contrast to our recent weather Saturday was a really lovely day: warm, sunny, very few clouds. Proper shorts weather. So I did 🙂

Given the fact that it was so pleasant, first order of the day was to inspect the colonies in my home apiary. Nothing much too exciting to report there: one colony probably needs a super and another (one of the ones I moved from another apiary) looks as though it is intending to supersede the queen. I went through the frames twice and could only find a single queen cell down one edge of one frame so I’m going to assume it’s supersedure and I’ll leave them to it. They may swarm once the queen cell is capped, but there aren’t any scouts sniffing around my bait hive at the moment, so I hope not. If they do, with a bit of luck the bait hive will catch them.

After lunch I inspected the only hive at another apiary. They seemed to be building quite slowly last month, but in the two weeks since our last inspection (it was too cold and wet to do last Saturday) they’ve really taken off. We have them another brood box so there’s room to expand.

And finally I did some inspections at a local farm. A colony there was a swarm from last year that seemed to have done really well last year, but was now building very slowly. They were still in a brood box that I used for last year’s bait hives because I’d not had time to switch them when I caught Covid last Summer, so I’ve now put them in a “long term” brood box.

Some time this week I need to get some bait hives out. I suspect that if our weather improves as the Met Office says it will, there are going to be quite a few swarms about soon.

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Memory Lane, 6th April 2023: Next stage of the “tree rescue”

Posted on May 3, 2024 by james

Today I attempted the next step in my attempt to rescue bees from the tree that was cut back last October. I opened up the cover that I’d fixed over the top of the cavity and put what is basically a bait hive over the top, but a bait hive with a difference. The floor of the hive has a huge hole in the middle and is screwed to the branch so it lines up with the top of the existing nest cavity.

I know bees tend to work downwards in the Spring and Summer, but I’m hoping that having the space above them and room to draw comb will entice them to move up gradually as their existing brood emerge.

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More silly election quotes

Posted on May 3, 2024 by james

Angela Leadsom was quoted today by the BBC, talking about the chap who won the election for the Tees Valley mayor.

This is all credit to a mayor who has done an absolutely brilliant job in a key part of the levelling up agenda for the government

She said. All credit to him. Ok, fair enough. Possibly that and the fact that he pretty much hid the fact that he was a Tory, too. Didn’t even wear a rosette on stage when the results were announced. That’s a weird thing, come to think of it. If you’re that ashamed of how the government has performed, why are you aligning yourself with them and then pretending that you’re not? Hypocritical, much?

Anyhow, when challenged on the issue that he hid his political affiliation, Leadsom went on to say the win was a

testament to the Conservative government

Now to me it seems that if the new mayor should have all the credit, it can’t be a testament to the government. That’s an oxymoron, surely? He could have some of the credit and the rest be a testament to the government, but if it’s all down to him, then the actions of the government don’t enter into it.

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More fat dummies (the beekeeping sort)

Posted on May 3, 2024 by james

Roofs remade, brood boxes repaired, crown boards made, today was time to get started on some more (insulated) fat dummies, which also helps clear the large stack of ply in the workshop. So, first job: cut a load of rectangles of ply, 207mm deep by 356mm wide. I think there’s about twenty-three of them here. I just kept going until I had enough, then finished off the sheet I was cutting.

I had some strips of wood for the sides and bottoms left over from last time I made them, 34mm wide and 9mm thick, so I cut some into 207mm lengths.

Then glued them to the edges, using a few 15mm brads from the nailgun that I also use to make frames to hold them together until the glue sets.

The bottom piece is 338mm long. Also glued and fixed with brads, and there are a couple of brads holding the sides to the bottom, too.

And finally for the moment, fit the top bars that I glued together a couple of weeks ago. These are glued and stapled using 25mm staples through the top bars into the top edge of the sides (where the frame sidebar would normally go).

I managed to get seven done today before I ran out of the wood for the sides/bottoms. I’ve selected some more from the scrap pile that I can cut down for more, but I need to check how many glued top bars I have first. I don’t think it’s actually that many more.

Next I’ll cut and fit the insulation, then fix the second ply side in place and I’m done.

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Is Sunak stepping down?

Posted on May 3, 2024 by james

He’s quoted by the BBC as saying

I am focused completely on the job at hand – that’s delivery for people across the country

So will he be working for Just Eat, or Deliveroo?

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