Bees are getting busy

The warm and dry weather we have enjoyed over the past three weeks has brought a great deal of bee activity. There's lots out there for them to forage. The blossom is early and there's plenty of it about. Looking at the bees, I can see lots of pollen being brought into the hive. That probably means the amount of brood is increasing.

David has made up another two brood boxes. They will be added to the hives shortly so that the bees can move in and set up some some queen cells in them as well as worker brood. In early June we will remove them from the hives and set them up as new hives in their own right.

More ivy

Yesterday, when I was delivering some flyers in Sunniside for our community cafe, I found someone stripping a large amount of ivy from her garden fence. She was going to put it into her green bin which the council collects every fortnight to turn into compost. I provided her with a more local use for it. I took it down the road to our goats who merrily munched their way through it. Ivy is one of their favourite foods.

Tamworth pork, apple and sage burgers

We recently bought another Tamworth pig from Bill Quay Community Farm in Gateshead. It went straight to slaughter and amongst the joints and bacon we got back, were two large bags of sausagemeat. I converted it all to burgers using up, in the process, all our remaining apples from last year and about half of the dried sage we had. The burgers will be used by ourselves, traded with others for their produce, and sold in our monthly community cafe at Marley Hill Community Centre (the next cafe is tomorrow, Easter Monday).

5 Welsh Harlequin ducklings

Here they are - the 5 Welsh Harlequin ducklings we hatched this weekend. They have beautiful golden feathers though they will eventually outgrow them. I'm looking forward to watching them grow.

Broad beans sprouting

Beans are one of our most important crops especially for carbohydrates, protein and roughage. We planted some in potato bags in March and they have now started to sprout. We have put wire netting over the bags to keep out the hens. So far so good. We have a different variety still to plant. They will be potted up shortly.

Vegetable and bacon soup

Soup is a good way to use up our vegetable stocks from last year. This is vegetable soup with fried bacon (from a recent Tamworth pig). Vegetable included are red cabbage, pumpkin, marrow (okay officially the two latter are fruit), turnip and onion. We have made enough to last us three days. The marrow and pumpkin skins have been fed to the goats and poultry.

Welsh harlequin ducklings are starting to hatch

I've just taken this photo. Our Welsh Harlequin ducklings are starting to hatch. Only one duckling at the moment but this afternoon I checked the eggs and could hear movement in 5 out of 6. I am hoping to wake up tomorrow to the sight of more.