Recent content by Amari

After moaning all April about the cold, rain and wind, May has brought lovely weather and a heavy flow so that I now have 4-5 supers on my five productive hives. The hives, double BB, sit on stands 18" above ground level so that the hive roofs are at shoulder-head level. Not sure where the...

If you have random drone cells but no worker brood then that's the classical sign of drone-laying workers. The colony is doomed and the standard practice is to shake them out - though sadly they'd have nowhere to go as you only have one hive. It's unlikely that introducing a purchased queen...

I do it at any time of day wearing my bee suit - no problems.

Yes, I have to net BBs, otherwise the muntjac eat the pods - but only the lower half of each one - they obligingly leave the upper halves!

:iagree: Even worse, it seeds like mad so plants pop up all over the garden, often where digging it out would damage precious garden plants.

Please tell us more @Antipodes. SWMBO and I have had two lovely holidays in Tas. I wouldn't like to think that you've been either blown or washed away.

Update: I managed to contact the bird breeder who lives in the parish. He confirms that his male Kooky escaped about three weeks ago but was recaptured several days later. I forgot to ask how - maybe a sausage? (see post 29). He successfully breeds them and sells them on to a variety of...

Cowslips around here have been greatly increasing for the last few years so we have several grass road verges with quite thick carpets. Presumably they seed freely. The waxing and waning of plant and animal species is endlessly fascinating: gold finches are now our most numerous garden bird...

How do you plant your spuds? I mark out the rows then make holes in flat ground with a modified bulb planter and drop in the spud. I then rake adjacent soil to make a ridge above the spuds. No further earthing-up needed. The pics below show Casablanca, planted last week March, coming through. My...

That's a shame Poot! BBC may not be perfect but I rate BBC (which does its best to resist political interference) and the NHS (underfunded but largely free from commercial exploitation) highly as public institutions that I most value. Bring on nationalisation of the railways and water/:poop...

I've glued a piece of soldering mat to the base of my smoker for the same reason.

Yes, bees don't like black gloves. Also, a few years ago I was asked by a lady beekeeper to help trickle oxalic acid midwinter. She was wearing fleece gloves. The bees were enraged and her gloves became covered with ferocious bees.

Shame there are no matchsticks.....

Hawthorn, sycamore, horse chestnut, dandelion - hopefully!

I've never felt safe wearing a jacket: you bend over and the jacket rides up leaving a gap between it and trousers. BB Wear suit with fencing veil for me.