Colony Losses

[pargyle]

luckily, out of the (at least) seven independent bakers trading in a four mile radius I remember as a youth, one still trades in Amanford three miles away although taken over by Jenkins' bakery, the bread gets trucked in from their bakery in Llanelli (where most of their shops are) every morning. Although now with nigh on twenty shops with ones in Bridgend, Port Talbot, Neath and Swansea, It's all proper traditional bread although they do experiment with sourdough, multigrain and other exotic stuff to keep the hipster types happy.
There's also another small independent supermarket firm which started in Llandeilo and now has in store bakeries baking proper bread in most of their stores. The bakery manager, my age was brought up two doors down from me and did his apprenticeship in the bakery opposite our shop. He used his contacts to get me an 'in' with the local BAKO branch.

There you are Newbeeneil ... elevated to the status of Hipster type ... and there you were thinking you were over the hill as far as socio-economic grouping was concerned... best not admit that you are also into Quinoa ...

 

[Curly green finger's]

All change. and

@mbc one of your 2021 queens in this hive hopefully I get another season to rear queens from her, guys if you have mini nucs wintering keep an eye on them 5 out of 7 needed feeding yesterday four have brood.
The colony above have 9 seems of bees and fresh brood cappings covering 3-4 frames

 

[Swarm]

I asked at a local supposedly proper bakers about fondant a got a very weird response. Now I just get 12.5kg boxes from whoever offers the best deal, which usually hinges on delivery costs. The odd thing about that is that I can order from a Scottish supplier cheaply enough but they then want to charge hugely for delivery, whereas I can order the same from other sources further afield and have it delivered more cheaply. I guess greed matters. With actual bread etc it's a big problem getting anything that is not plastic white and stodgy these days. It's all bought in and then prepared locally, I wouldn't mind too much except I don't like white stodge and the quality is dreadful compared to where I used to live where it was also bought in, the quality however was very good.

We had similar with our local baker, who liked to advertise himself as a Patissier, who found an order for a dozen croissants too challenging. When we explained they were over cooked (well and truly) he suggested we go to Tesco. He was buying them in, didn't make the dough himself, all he had to do was cook them but he wasn't up to it. Needless to say, he didn't last long.

 

[pargyle]

@mbc one of your 2021 queens in this hive hopefully I get another season to rear queens from her, guys if you have mini nucs wintering keep an eye on them 5 out of 7 needed feeding yesterday four have brood.
The colony above have 9 seems of bees and fresh brood cappings covering 3-4 frames

What was your reason for opening them up and inspecting them to that extent ? They are flying strongly, clearly a big colony on brood and a half ... what more did you need to know ? Hobbyist curiosity ...it's stlll February - best left in peace.

 

[Swarm]

@mbc one of your 2021 queens in this hive hopefully I get another season to rear queens from her, guys if you have mini nucs wintering keep an eye on them 5 out of 7 needed feeding yesterday four have brood.
The colony above have 9 seems of bees and fresh brood cappings covering 3-4 frames

Yes, they are certainly not hanging around.

 

[Erichalfbee]

They still exist around you?

Yes we have one left in lampeter
We used to have three, then a Greggs moved in and they closed. A year later Greggs left.
Stupid council not thinking at all
Now the university wants to move its courses to Carmarthen.
It will be the death of the town

 

[Moobee]

We found the same until we went searching though the shelves at our local tescos.
They do a couple of passable sourdough’s.
I’m having the seeded one as toast for breakfast at the moment.

Check the ingredients! And also look at the Real Bread Campaign and their article on loaf tanning salons where part made bread (with no country of origin!) is brought in just to finish the baking so the supermarket can claim it’s ‘baked in house’ or ‘fresh’ - so much supermarket ‘sourdough’ is full of nasty chemicals and yeast - obvs not needed if proper sourdough.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Stupid council not thinking at all

they can't really stop them - if there was a retail premises there before they took over the property, there's no change of use.

 

[Moobee]

We are very lucky - proper baker opened in our village, everything made on the premises and there are queues outside every morning. Not cheap but it’s doing a great trade & they close by 2pm as the shelves are virtually empty.
Before they opened I made my own bread every week as at least I knew what was going into it.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I miss our local bakeries, we seldom bought bread in central bakery opposite but preferred 'mol' (Moelwyn) at Lucknow bakery up the road and we sold his bread in our shop.
Both bakeries did a daily door to door delivery service as did many other bakers in the area.
Of course, my grandmother (mother's mother) always baked her own bread as did many around here, and we actually sold 'fresh' baker's yeast in the shop. When we closed my grandmother bought her yeast from central bakery, it was handy as David, who ran the bakery lived a few doors up from my grandmother. Knowing he would never change my grandmother, he was happy to supply her with both flour and yeast. When we had the big snows in 1981 and 82 Dai would walk the mile and a half, over the river to the hakery every day to make sure bread was available, one day he called in with my grandmother, dropped off a big bag of flour and a lump of yeast and said 'do me a favour, look after the neighbours and bake them bread, save me a walk back with a basked of bread on my head - and them having to wait until the evening for a delivery!

 

[Erichalfbee]

I made my own bread every week as at least I knew what was going into it

I bake twice a week. Cotswold Flour have an amazing array of flours
I really enjoy it. I have a Kitchen Aid to do the kneading and I have treated myself to a glazed dutch oven to try no knead bread as well
Each loaf gets two tablespoons of my honey and two of olive oil

 

[Erichalfbee]

they can't really stop them

English County Councils seem to be able to stop chains setting up......

 

[Newbeeneil]

Check the ingredients! And also look at the Real Bread Campaign and their article on loaf tanning salons where part made bread (with no country of origin!) is brought in just to finish the baking so the supermarket can claim it’s ‘baked in house’ or ‘fresh’ - so much supermarket ‘sourdough’ is full of nasty chemicals and yeast - obvs not needed if proper sourdough.

I can’t find any particularly “nasty” ingredients in it but you might be right about the rest.

INGREDIENTS: Wheat Flour [Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin], Water, Mixed Seeds (6%) [Pumpkin Seeds, Red Quinoa, Sunflower Seeds, Chia Seeds, Brown Linseeds, Golden Linseeds], Rye Sourdough [Rye Flour, Water], Sea Salt, Barley Malt Extract, Rye Flour, Stoneground Wholemeal Wheat Flour, Lentils, Puffed Rye Malt, Rye Malt Flour, Salt, Tapioca Starch, Toasted Chickpeas, Durum Wheat Semolina.

 

[Swarm]

I have a customer who buys honey for herself and her friends in the various groups she is involved with, she is giving me a sourdough starter when I next visit. Her bread is delicious.

 

[mbc]

@mbc one of your 2021 queens in this hive hopefully I get another season to rear queens from her, guys if you have mini nucs wintering keep an eye on them 5 out of 7 needed feeding yesterday four have brood.
The colony above have 9 seems of bees and fresh brood cappings covering 3-4 frames

Good to know mate, still going strong by the looks of her

 

[Curly green finger's]

What was your reason for opening them up and inspecting them to that extent ? They are flying strongly, clearly a big colony on brood and a half ... what more did you need to know ? Hobbyist curiosity ...it's stlll February - best left in peace.

you never change do you

 

[Erichalfbee]

I have a customer who buys honey for herself and her friends in the various groups she is involved with, she is giving me a sourdough starter when I next visit. Her bread is delicious.

Easy enough to make your own...especially if you have dogs

 

[Sutty]

Easy enough to make your own...especially if you have dogs

What's the dog connection??

 

[mbc]

you never change do you

Got to say I was tempted to do a little peeking yesterday afternoon, (thought better of it and went to see the rugby in my brothers pub)it was lovely down here, all change today, very uninspiring!
Can't wait to get into mine- with a little dread as there's bound to bee a few dead outs to pick up.
Some of my nucs are hefting light so I'd like to see them as soon as possible and take any remedial action necessary, I've overwintered dozens of mini plus hives, mostly on double brood but still those small units need keeping an eye on, either starving or bursting out of the box as soon as you turn your back!

 

[Erichalfbee]

What's the dog connection??

They carry lots of yeasts about in their ears and feet especially. These are in the air.
I started mine by putting the flour/water in the kitchen aid whisk for ten minutes.