Get a grip woman!

rtandon27

Suffolk_lass said:

...Do I check every single financial thing I ask him to do? - no. I need to let it go.

LOL - SL I feel for you - my OH can be much the same, but I tend to check up on him at regular intervals 😉

carolbee

I will too, as I’m also about 15 miles from Canterbury. I wonder if I’m near @Watty1?

I’m on Planet Thanet 😉

Merlin's_Beard

Watty1 said:

I love your diary.  Today I have learnt bees are livestock.  so many questions.  Do you need a licence to keep them?  Are they are registered livestock?     Would they show my land is agricultural if I had them rather than equestrian which is what the council think it is as I have horses and sheep for only a couple of months?    Is it an old wives tale that horses and bees should not be kept together?

And I will look for the Asian Hornet app as am about 15 miles from Canterbury and not far off a route used by lorries from the Tunnel.

I don't think it's as legally compulsory to register bees as it is to register sheep - no required CPHs for bees! But ruminants are (nationally) a lot more important economically so it's considered more vital to track every single one, even if they're pets.

Watty1

carolbee said:

I will too, as I’m also about 15 miles from Canterbury. I wonder if I’m near @Watty1?

I’m on Planet Thanet 😉

I'm not far away near Ashford

Suffolk_lass

@Merlin's_Beard you are right that the legal recording of bees is not as heavily regulated as that for sheep (but bees are still regulated and responsible beekeepers are registered and visited by the inspector, from time to time.

I can't comment on value to the economy without doing a lot of analysis, but yields from crops that bees pollinate are increased by at least 10% by presence of honeybees (other pollinators too, of course). OSR (oil seed rape), field beans and fruit all need pollination (though potatoes and F1 hybrids do not). 

In MSE money news, I can see my £500 refund from the Scottish ones is due in my account tomorrow. I was going to ring fence it by buying PB but now I need to transfer it to DH whose credit card has the deposit for next Easter's holiday house on it, along with various other bigger than normal spends.

In other news I have just (literally just) opened what I took to be a bottle of homemade elderflower cordial. It wasn't. It was the last bottle of the experimental elderflower "champagne" I made last year. I flipped the stone stopper... and it just exploded all over the kitchen. Absolutely everywhere. Cue major wipe down of everything I could reach and DH has just got up and taken over for the recesses of the extractor hood and backsplash that was 2+ metres from the bottle. At least I know it keeps its fizz and it had not gone off. I wanted a few bottles for this year's modest batch of cordial. DH has just observed that unlike when the blackcurrant jelly bag fell, he won't have to repaint this time 

slm6002

Did you get to drink any of it, or was it all decorating your kitchen?

Staffordia

Oh, Elderflower champagne takes me back to my childhood. My Dad used to make it, it was lovely. Although we also had an exploding bottle, the Cork hit him on the cheekbone, left a hefty bruise. 

Suffolk_lass

@slm6002, no, it literally all exploded out. Still finding now-dry sticky marks to remove!

We have two supers of honey now to extract with a third on the way (the clearer board (one-way gate) to get the bees out, is in place). I managed to squash a bee between my middle and fourth finger on my left hand and took a sting through two pairs of gloves yesterday. I realised about ten minutes later that the finger with my wedding ring and engagement ring was swelling quite rapidly. So I abandoned the hive I intended inspecting and retreated so I could get my rings off safely. Good decision!

This morning it is quite swollen. My rings are safely on my necklace until it reduces back to normal and stops itching. I had better take a second anti-histamine today, in case I have a repeat as I know the venom doesn't agree with me, and I can feel my upper arm, where I was stung a couple of seeks ago, is also rather itchy.

I had to order two more brood chambers this morning so that we have some kit that is not deployed.

DH is just sorting my naughty tyres out - I think there is a failed seal as every week the deflation warning light comes on and they are new tyres. One had lost 15lbs of pressure last time (I had reset it twice before getting him to check). He has a thing that uses the power of the car to inflate them, not the old foot-pump.

beanielou

You are a much braver woman than me. 

Merlin's_Beard

I hope those tyres are new enough that you can go and ask for a replacement!