Next steps; grip-relaxing bimbling, and avoiding the temptations

Suffolk_lass

A bit tired after yesterday, I still have some things to do before I go to the apiary where I am on duty this afternoon.

Garden
My tomatoes have at last decided to grow a bit, with the warm daytime temperatures. The counterbalance is that on the one day I asked Mr Sl to open the greenhouse and uncover the still-cloched germinating plants (Thursday), he did not do so until mid-day. So I have lots of two leaved cucumbers that were the advance guard, with fried leaves that look sickly and may not make it. Not happy. I am nurturing them in the hope that the tiny green buds in the middle have enough energy to recover a bit (sigh). He did cut some of the grass, having got our gardener friend to transplant the snowdrops and primroses, to the front garden. They all look very poorly, but hopefully they will recover. He (the gardener) did remove lots of baby docs (from seed) and bindweed (persistent buggers) from the raspberry bed. My focus is kind of elsewhere as the bee situation is building up.

Bees
I needed to check my bees as I introduced queens to a number of hives last week. So I was looking for her, and for brood in all stages. After 8 days, newly capped brood down to eggs.

So off I went, to find the nucleus that Mr Sl set up for the old queen at colony 1 was empty, except for robbers. Clearly, he missed the old queen. A quick look and she and her entourage are under the hive floor of the hive she came out of (sighs, again). That hive had one of the queens I introduced. I was not hopeful when I opened them, but was delighted to find two slabs of newly capped brood. I was optimistic. Then the very next frame had two supercedure cells. Often the bees will not accept an incomer, they will let her lay some eggs, for as long as it takes for them to secure their future (ie brood for their succession; new bees emerging to look after the Q they choose to make themselves). I stopped looking for her as I went, and focussed on the brood. Were there any eggs? Nope. Were there more Queen cells? Yep. Sighs again. I suspect the Q underneath is irrelevant to some degree but her pheromone was close enough for them to reject the newcomer. I popped a cloth over them and had a think. Then I swapped frames from the empty nucleus into the hive and removed the frames with Queen cells all over them to the nucleus. I gave the nucleus a frame of bees (the foragers will go back to the hive, but the young bees will stay to end the brood). I knocked back a few emergency cells but I left them with at least two on each of two frames as they are too small to swarm.

I moved to the adjacent nucleus to which I had introduced a first Queen last week, confident I would find her, and evidence of her fecundity. No trace of her, or any bees. Just some young bees, waiting for a Q to look after. I knew the hive next to this had the old Queen in and that she was in a cage, so I retrieved her and put her (still caged) into the nuc. She was being fed through the little holes in the cage. I don't want her to lay, as her progeny are a bit to grumpy to keep at a farm house with residents and staff being upset by bees, but her pheromone is useful in the interim to keep them from absconding. The hive I removed her from no longer has the means to make a queen, so I moved one of the frames from the other nuc, that I had just made up, over to them, so they have a capped queen cell to be going on with. 

Leaving them I went to the location where our bees go when we need to move them. I had to wait for the lady with the horses to come back to move her horse box so I looked at my phone. A message from the other end of our village from someone saying they had a swarm and could I help please. I left my bees, drove back, and let Mr Sl know I needed to collect my swarm kit. Went to the swarm location, ready to collect from a hedge but they had gone. Just a small handful in the hedge, who could still smell the queen pheromone had been there, but had been out looking for a new site when their swarm left. They will go back to where they started from. Had a cup of tea there to make sure I was not wrong, and then came home.

After all the faffing it was about three, so we shut the dog in DH's car and took both cars and lots of kit to the farm to do the majority of the sorting out, both of us, with the dog safely stowed away from any bee hostility. More bees sorted (I am not going into details) but we closed up just before 5.30 as the heat was gone. Then as I went to record what we had done, found a message from someone - could we come and look, there are a lot of bees around our roof. Message left at 3.15

So off we went. They were out. A lot of solitary bees in the holes in their brickwork (mason bees) where they have removed a trellis and left the holes, but also, 8-10 near the roof line, hovering around the fascia boards. No more, no less, these could be hopefuls, scout bees looking for somewhere to bring a swarm, or solitary bees, as above, or late returners to a departed swarm, or, a swarm in there, and these are the last foragers returning, as the day's heat was going. We could not tell at that time. So I sent her a message and we came home for a late supper of grilled sausage and salad, followed by some set Greek yoghurt, a hot shower and an early night for me, after watching Our Dream Farm on 4+1.

Have a good Sunday - We have the bees I missed to sort out this morning; Mr Sl might be willing as I need to do some garden stuff, and I need to be out by 1pm and back by 5pm before DS&P come over for the Easter meal they dropped out of - a take away chicken skewer (kebabs for them, just the meat with my own salad, for me)

Suffolk_lass

Watty1 said:

Definitely not visible on the front.  Machine is a Miele 2819 according to the front of it.    You are prompting me to investigate google!

Maybe it is one of the highly efficient new ones - I found this @Watty1 - there is a whirlpool symbol with a lower case "he" inside it if it is one, and...

Just found the manual at this link - pages 42-44 are what you need!

High-Efficiency Washing Machines

If you have a high-efficiency (HE) washer — whether front- or top-loading — your machine likely doesn’t have a washing machine filter. Instead, it relies on a self-cleaning pump filter to remove lint from the wash. High-efficiency washers may not have lint traps, but the water pump filter can still get blocked. Here’s how to clean the pump filter:

1. Run an empty wash or self-cleaning cycle once a month to flush excess lint from the pump filter.

rtandon27

@Watty1 - a link to the manual 😁

Suffolk_lass

rtandon27 said:

@Watty1 - a link to the manual 😁

I really should concentrate - I moved the text and dropped the link. Thank you!

Suffolk_lass

A week+ on and the washing machine is back to normal (touch wood) working and I remain ever so slightly thrilled that it was me who restored it to this condition.

Bees

The last week has seen me offering advice to four beekeepers, my previous mentee, one of two I allocated to myself to mentor, and a third mentee I reluctantly took on because I live closest to him, after the spreadsheet had errors, and a fourth, who lacks confidence.

Meanwhile, our own bees are in various stages of spring activity. At the small apiary (normally two hives in the grounds of a significant house), there are currently two hives and two nucleus colonies, through which we were introducing queens. Of course both knew best; killed the queens and two colonies were queenless and chasing the gardener. Anyway, long story short, they have new virgin queens and we are hopeful that they will get out and mate before it is too late. The poor weather is not good! The other two have queen cells - the hive has supercedure cells, having let the new queen lay eggs before killing her, and then they drew emergency cells, which are all on one frame and I hope to harvest and use elsewhere, before reuniting most of the little bees looking after the queen cells!

At our main apiary, both the colonies I was doing a change of comb in are now in their new homes and the old, manky comb is nearby so they can recover the honey, if they want it. Unfortunately the person helping me move one of these back to their original position, shoved, rather than lifting the colony over the ratchet straps, and pushed it off the stand rails. I was the other side and I hope I managed to keep the floor and brood chamber together, and it was just the top part that toppled, as the queen was certainly in the brood box and happy there. Ho hum, more haste, less speed and a little less impetuosity on his part will make it all happier for him. Two of the other three there are quietly getting on with things, and the third, also a queen recipient with a nucleus, might end up being a monster colony. Not sure if we want half a ton of honey again so we might leave them as two and reunite later.

Our third location has a new queen, who was likely to go out mating when Mr Sl looked last week, so we need to leave her to it for a week or two.

Garden

Mr Sl loathes gardening so the gardener and I do most of it. If I want stumps I ask Mr Sl to prune. I do also get him to plant in the veg beds. Two lots of runner beans, one lot of dwarf French and the sweet peas first, then the first lot of Borlottis. I have lots of little veg seedlings in the cold frame but it is too cold and wet for the moment. I am off to my greenhouse to !!!!!! out and pot on some of the flowers.By the time I returned from teaching yesterday, the temperature had dropped, so after potting on cornflowers and summer savoury, I closed up and left them to it. Lots to do and I am off out there now.

Money?

I won £200 on PB this month, and Mr Sl won £25 - all reinvested. We also received just under £600 in interest from the instant savings account into which I Tilly-tidy the current accounts. So my "Save £12k in 2025" challenge took a little boost. I don't record the shares held (which have taken a hit); just the dividend income in the S&S ISA, but I had none in April, and Mr Sl only two. Swings and roundabouts, as they say. 

I shopped in M&S for F&V last week. Nice quality, plenty of choice, only a few bits missing. £47.05 spent though  . Not the cheapest but it stopped me buying other things in my regular SM. 

Our respective diets are progressing, although I suspect he has now calculated exactly how much extra he can eat... He does seem to have plateaued. Mine creeps down when I eat less and stays the same when I eat more. 11.8lbs in four weeks for me. I wanted the extra 2.2lbs at the halfway point of the 8WLBSD I am following. Today I plan for us to have soup (his with a bread roll) then tonight, poached eggs with asparagus and (oof, that reminds me), a bag of spinach if the local store has some (and I need cash). Off out to get those two things now then!

Suffolk_lass

A quick update after nearly a month - Mr Sl remains in hospital after going in for what was supposed to be a straightforward keyhole day surgery to remove his gallbladder - It is five days now and is taking all my energy and attention. Basically there is infection, a blockage caused by flushing out the gallstones, but not in the bile or pancreas - it is in his bowel. Now pressing on his lungs and was stopping him emptying his bladder (catheter resolved that).
 I won't say more but he is in for the weekend.

Watty1

Just caught up. Thank you for the link to the manual.  I did know about running the hygiene wash cycle but have been very lapse.  Will plan to do that this weekend.   Goodness I am grateful for this forum

LadyWithAPlan

Makingabobor2 said:

A friend of mine keeps bees & I had never realised how complex & time consuming it is. 

I am in awe of the work and technical knowledge needed as well ! 

I am catching up here on your diary and so glad to read that OH did not have the cancer diagnosis - hopefully he will get better again soon after the surgery - at least he is in the right place and you have been eating super well in the run up . 
it must have been so scary watching those blue lights drive away with him in it & now this extender hospital trip - I am so glad you have a decent support network. 

Sending you a virtual hug 

foxgloves

Best wishes for Mr SL's continued recovery. It sounds as though it's been a scary worrying time. 
F x

Baileys_Babe

Sorry to hear about the complications after Mr SL's surgery, wishing him a speedy recovery.

Please look after yourself @Suffolk_lass can you arrange for friends or neighbours to walk the dog, water the garden... so you can use your energy for the most important things, loving and looking after yourself and Mr SL 🤗