Bees mark the spot

Gina agreed that we can have the hive in our garden. Hurrah! Although she is still a little concern. We are looking into ways to control the bees' flight path, to and from the hive, ensuring that they leave and return the hive at a great height.

On sunday morning I took advantage of the fair weather, and domestic entente cordiale, to give our messy wintering garden a good tidying up. The main objective was, of course to prepare my bees spot. Two local foxes had been practically living (and yes they did) in our garden for the last few months. Time they move out.

In order to get some working space, when the hive is in place, I have to reclaim part of my small vegetable patch at the bottom of the garden right next to my pear tree. I placed wooden planks on the ground to make it more stable to stand on. The bees spot will be where my compost bin used to be. It is a great little spot. When the hive comes it will have a high wall and a pear tree to the north , a tall buddleia behind it, and a small bamboo bush to the south of it. The morning sun should touches it at around 9:30. 

Throughout this week I had been reading an excellent book: Practical Manual of Beekeeping -by David Cramp. It's well written and informative, though, once again, the chapter on bee disease can be really off putting though very interesting. While reading this chapter honey was the last thing on my mind. I do like the way that Cramp tells how things went wrong in his early bee keeping days including exploding jars of honey!

I had my second bee class last night. Learn how to make frames - good fun. We had a good look at some ex-honey bee (cue Monty Python). The tiny pretty insects reminded me of my children when they were babies. Ahh...