And another swarm collection

Our second call out of the season to collect a honey bee swarm so another 5am start! The swarm was successfully captured and added to a spare hive. Meanwhile, relocating a colony of bumble bees in a bird box was a simple task.

22 chicks

We bought 22 chicks recently. They were about 10 days old at the time. All are hens. We failed last year to ensure we had a good supply of new layers for this year so these chicks will add to egg production from the autumn onwards.

Sadly, the incubator that had duck eggs in it broke down. It had only a week to go before the eggs were due to hatch. By the time I checked on them, the eggs were already cold. We had to throw them out and start again.

Rhubarb and ginger jam

We have a glut of rhubarb at the moment. One way to use it up is to make it into jam. One of my favourites is rhubarb and ginger.

The swarming season starts

For us, the honey bee swarming season normally starts in June. This year it is early. We have had a number of call outs to collect swarms this May and this video was filmed when we collected our one.

Self-Sufficient in Suburbia - April 2019

This is the latest video from our world of self-sufficiency - April was a month of very varied weather. We got new ducks, installed a battery to store power from our solar panels, took sick goats tot he vet and looked at buying some land. Lots happening!