Can Anyone Identify This Butterfly?

George found this little beauty in the poly tunnel - it measured approximately two inches across.

The Birds and The Bees

My hero, John, called by this afternoon.  He brought us a jar of his honey, as a thank you gift for letting him collect the bees.  We have sampled it and it is truly excellent stuff.

We had a wonderful chat as he reminisced about farming in the 1930's and the great changes he has seen.  It was fascinating stuff, he began working in farming when the power was supplied by horses, witnessed the introduction of tractors and so on to farming today with all the big machinery and technology which that involves.

John was born in Yorkshire and told us how he used to walk the two miles to school every day, only to have the first 15 minutes of every day designated for physical exercise - so after his young legs had walked two miles they would then have to do a series of PT exercises, followed by running twice around the playground at top speed.  This was a small village school with one teacher and about 35 pupils.

We heard tales about his early days on a large estate - where, coincidentally, a friend of mine worked as a housekeeper, about twenty years ago.  Small world!

Our talk moved on to cereal growing and John told us about how all those years ago a field of corn would be dotted with wild flowers, which aphids would live on, these in turn would provide food for young partridges.  He also lamented the lack of skylarks and cuckoos, saying that as he used to work with the horses he would often hear five or six cuckoos and delight in the large number of skylarks.

He is a fascinating man with so many tales to tell, much wisdom to impart.

The bees quickly moved into their new hive and are busily working to make it feel like home.

Unfortunately, a couple of dozen bees got left behind.  They are not at all happy.  They are miniature kamikaze bees.  This afternoon they stung my daughter on the head as she got out of her car - no provocation at all.

This afternoon, while we were working in the vegetable garden, George got stung on the ear.  Another one pursued him into the polytunnel, followed him to the greenhouse and was hell-bent on getting him...  I'm keeping antihistamine cream and tweezers at the ready....

Ninety-Five and He Still Climbs Ladders...

Tuesday dawned fair, sunny and warm and we spent a very happy morning tackling some long-delayed jobs.

I was just taking a treat to Little Red Hen when I became aware of an all-pervasive hum. I was surrounded by it.    My first thought was that I must have some bees or wasps flying around my head ...mild panic began to set in!

Indeed it did turn out to be bees -  they were swarming onto the branch of a tree.  In that funny way of coincidences, I had only been chatting the previous day to John, (I have posted about him here) one of our wonderful Village Elders, and he said his hive lacked a Queen, so he was hoping for a swarm...

I practically ran up the road to John's house, to see whether these bees would be suitable.   John has been keeping bees since he was 10 years old -  he is 95 now - and still very highly regarded, far and wide, for his knowledge on the subject.  At one time he had 30 hives all in full production.

I was getting very nervous - not so much about the bees - but because I was wondering how on earth John was going to collect this swarm of bees which were located about 7 or 8 feet up a tree.......remember, John is 95 years old and slightly shorter than he used to be!

There was some discussion, with George offering to collect them, but John was insistent that he would do it...we did some rapid thinking and I suggested that perhaps we could get the scaffolding set up to give him a secure platform.  I still wasn't happy at the idea of him scaling the ladders, but one problem at a time...

To cut a long story short - here is John, up the ladders and sweeping the bees into a box.  I was terrified that  he would trip or fall.  I know John's family sometimes reads this blog:  Please accept my apologies, we made it as safe as we could, we tried to dissuade him from climbing, but he is a stubborn man!    

George only got stung twice while he was supporting the ladders and making sure that John would have a reasonably soft landing if he took the short route down...

I am happy to report that everything went well.  John is remarkably spry, all things considered.  Apart from having to use a stick, he moves like a spring chicken.  As I type we are still waiting for the last few bees to go inside the hive and then John will come back and take the box of bees to his place where there is a hive ready and waiting for them.

I'll keep you posted!
Hot off the press......

This is John and George wrapping the bees ready for transportation...a couple of hundred yards up the road, by car...

George carrying the buzzing box out to John's car....brave man.  Apologies for the poor quality, night was falling, the light has gone.......and so have the bees.  Yippee!