Quite beautiful this morning. Everything covered in frost glinting in the early morning sunlight. This Witch Hazel looked like a little glimmering jewel.
Tag: Smallholding
Buried Treasure
While landscaping our gardens we have dug up many things including old tools, farm implements, water pumps, tyres, bones and scrap metal.
However, one of the most delicate and lovely things we have found are antique bottles.
Varied and obviously old, quite often the writing on them tells a story.
One bottle reads:
WHEELER
LONDON
TRADE MARK
SOFT WHITE HANDS
Another reads:
MRS WIINSLOW’S
SOOTHING SYRUP
CURTIS & PERKINS
PROPRIETORS
My favourite is:
SAMPLE BOTTLE
DR.KILMER’S
SWAMP ROOT
KIDNEY CURE
LONDON.E.C
A Bite Out of Every Apple!
It would appear we have a mouse problem in our store! After carefully picking and storing our apple crop, It would appear a little mouse family has come along and taken a bite out of nearly every apple!
Even worse, it would appear that we have had rat visitors too with big toothy bites out of some of the store squashes.
This is what I want, I really really want ….
I have a two acre field, I really want to turn into (revert to?) wildflower meadow. How do you do it? Can anyone help?
It seems really complicated and expensive.
Done the research over a few years and got the facts, just spent £40 on seed! (mixture of perennial and annual from Pictorial Meadows #PictorialMeadows) only does 10 square metres. 2 acres is equivalent to 8,000 square metres …… so at a price of £32,000 …. not really achievable????
A lot of money, but it needs to be done right, so hopefully this autumn we will get started. I then just need to work out how to do it affordably over the next 5 years ….. yes a 5 year project ….
#RHSGardensRosemoor have stared a wild flower meadow, and it is looking good. They are just down the road, if they are reading, perhaps someone could help out, after all we are members. I could pay in honey, vegetables or fruit ….. but I suppose that is coals to Newcastle???
Anyone any thoughts on how we can do this in an environmental way, for little cost, to achieve a native meadow.
Even Honey Bees need a drink.
This little lady, is on a pebble at the waters edge taking a drink. You can see her little proboscis sticking out and taking up the water.
Bees not only need water to live, but also use it to rehydrate their honey.
Bees are enjoying the roses at RHS Rosemoor Rose Festival
The RHS Rosemoor Rose Festival was glorious. The roses were all out in bloom and their sweet scent wafted through the warm summer air.
Even though the blowsy colourful blooms thickly clustered with petals looked magnificent, it wass the simple open single rose flowers that attracted the attention of the bees.
This is always the way, the double blooms may look glorious to us, but simplicity is beauty to the bees.
The Queen is Laying!
The #BidefordHoneyBeeSwarm, collected from Bideford in Devon, has settled into its new hive nicely.
With the poor weather, I have continued to feed the bees, which has enabled them to build comb quite rapidly.
I inspected the bees last Sunday to discover a whole frame (both sides) full of sealed brood (bee larvae) and a large Healthy Queen bee walking around. This is a very positive sign!
I often get asked “What does the Queen look like?”. In this picture, in the middle, you can see a Queen Bee that has just returned from a mating flight.
Surrounded by attentive workers, she will soon get slightly bigger to the extent that she is unable to fly. At her peak she could be laying in the region of 1,000 eggs a day!
Two Swarms Collected from Bideford this week.
Today I collected my second swarm this week from the Bideford, North Devon.
A large swarm collected yesterday in a plum tree and was still present today, so I nipped along at 12:00 and picked it up.
It’s now located in my quarantine apiary, ready to be put in a hive tomorrow.
When collecting swarms, people, often ask me: “what happens next”?
I’ve decided to write about this swarm, so that anyone who is interested can track it’s progress. Check back to my website for updates: www.ChilcottsFarm.co.uk/news/ or follow the tag #BidefordHoneyBeeSwarm on Instagram.
The Geese Have Finished Laying
The geese have finished laying for this year, so we no longer have goose eggs for sale. We have a broody goose sitting on the last eggs laid, so maybe some spring goslings? Hopefully more goose eggs available from late February next year.
We still have plenty of duck eggs for sale. Please knock if you want to buy.
Swallows arrived at the end of April
The first swallows arrived at Chilcotts Farm on 21st April. Over the past week they have been busy searching out nesting sites in the out buildings repairing last year’s nests.
Its great to see them swooping around the beautiful blue sky.