Memory Lane, 7th May 2023: Next stage of solar greenhouse

Posted on May 9, 2024 by james

To support the north-east wall of the solar greenhouse my plan was to build a wooden framed wall. The wall on this side isn’t going to have any glass, so that wasn’t a problem I had to deal with.

In fact, there would be two such walls. The inner one would be where the original glazed wall would have been and just support the roof and “thermal store”, so to get the rest of the glazed structure built it seemed to be sensible to get that into place first.

That allowed me to stabilise the roof and definitively locate the position of the outer wall, which is what will come next.

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No dig diary, 9th May 2024

Posted on May 9, 2024 by james

I spent pretty much all day in the veg plot today. There’s so much to catch up on now the weather seems to be improving, at least until next week. I’ve had enough of weeding for the moment despite being little more than half way through what needs doing, so I started the day by planting out trays and trays of what in a normal year might be called seedlings, but this year are rather bigger than that. I think I managed about twenty trays worth in the end. There are still more to go though.

Rather than being a pleasant and leisurely activity it now seems to be a rush just to get the stuff done that absolutely needs doing now. Just a question of getting my head down and getting through it, I guess.

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Memory Lane, 5th May 2023: Demaree boards

Posted on May 8, 2024 by james

I thought I’d try the Demaree method for swarm management this year, so I made up a couple of boards to help. They go above the supers, under the upper brood box, so the arrangement from bottom to top might be: floor, brood box, QX, super, super, demaree board, brood box, crown board, roof.

The opening visible in the second image does upwards, so bees, specifically drones, that emerge in the top box aren’t trapped inside.

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First hornet of the season

Posted on May 8, 2024 by james

I reckon they’ve been about for a few days now because I was “buzzed” by what sounded like one when I was painting bait hives on Monday, but today I actually saw a hornet flying in the garden.

I think there’s even one tapping on the window wanting to be let in right now…

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A new beekeeping toy

Posted on May 8, 2024 by james

For me, this makes a lot of sense rather than having to rely on gas heating or lugging a battery to all of my hives. I’ve wanted one for a while, but asked for contributions to the cost for my birthday a couple of months back and finally ordered it over the weekend.

It’s the Instantvap compact oxalic acid sublimator. Easy-peasy varroa treatment. All my hives now have a rim on the floor through which I can drill a 7mm hole and insert the brass nozzle without even opening the hive. I’ve read that a golf tee works nicely to plug the hole when it isn’t in use so the bees don’t propolise it up.

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No dig diary, 8th May 2024: Weeding — the gift that keeps on giving

Posted on May 8, 2024 by james

I’m still at it. Another bed in the main veggie plot done today, plus most of the strawberry bed, one of the raspberry beds and the flower beds. It’s really getting a bit tedious now, but at least I’m over halfway at last.

I may have a break tomorrow and do some planting out instead.

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Memory Lane, 3rd May 2023: That is quite disgusting

Posted on May 7, 2024 by james

Our digger started running oddly, dying when the throttle was opened, but idling quite happily. At first I couldn’t work it out, but decided that perhaps an air and fuel filter replacement might be a good start. The air filter was a bit of a fiddle but eventually got sorted. Then I had to go looking for the fuel filter.

It was buried in mud and took me a while to dig out, but after finding a few bolts and various other stuff binding the mud together I finally made sufficient clearance to remove it and then the nature of the initial problem became clear. Here’s a new filter (on the left) and the old one (on the right)

I’m not even sure how any fuel was getting through that at all. Let’s just say it’s running an awful lot better now.

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First swarm of the season

Posted on May 7, 2024 by james

Kind of…

I received a message this afternoon saying that there was a large swarm by the road in our nearest town. I didn’t see the message immediately (I was fighting weeds at the time), but when I asked about it later the swarm had already disappeared into someone’s chimney. Looks like they’re in for a less-than-pleasant surprise tomorrow morning.

This isn’t an uncommon occurrence and makes me think that perhaps it would be a sociable thing to do to offer to site bait hives at a few places (in peoples’ gardens, say) around the town from April to the end of July. Might save a few people ending up with an expensive bill for removing them later on.

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More bait hive painting

Posted on May 7, 2024 by james

I’ve almost completed painting my bait hive brood boxes now. At least, I thought I had: six of them.

I was sorting through them in the apiary after the bees had gone to bed this evening and found at least one more brood box with ½” thick walls. It’s full of old brood frames at the moment, but I was pushing the light and couldn’t really tell what sort of condition they were in. They were narrow top bars whereas I now prefer wide ones, so I don’t think I’ll be using them in hives again, but if they’re in good enough shape they might be ok for more insulated dummies.

Having more bait hive boxes is not a major issue. It means that I can swap the complete box out to move it if necessary, rather than having to shift the frames to a new box straight away. Gives me a little bit more flexibility.

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No dig diary, 7th May 2024: More weeding

Posted on May 7, 2024 by james

I swear I don’t know how they grow so fast. This is the third time I’ve had to week the plot this year! It was slow progress, but I got another bed done today, including removing leeks and volunteer potatoes. Not as much progress as I wanted, but not bad thanks to an early morning airport “taxi” drive meaning that I didn’t actually get to bed until 5am 😀

So, three and a half down, far too many to go.

The jobs are stacking up faster than I can get them done at the moment. Hopefully by the end of this week things will be in a bit less of a mess.

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