Monday 21 October 2013

Crab Apple Glory

 These are my Crab Apple 'Plena' trees that line our driveway. They only flower for one week in October each year and they look so pretty in the sunlight yesterday I just had to share. 

Friday 11 October 2013

Free Bees!

Free bees!...Freebies!.....(bad pun I know)

Hubby was very excited this week as he collected his first swarm of bees from a lady's backyard in Queanbeyan.


I can't recall if I have mentioned it previously, but we lost a hive over winter. They were not a strong hive to begin with and with little food around last season we had serious doubts they would make it through the winter. Becoming more consciously aware of potential 'bee food' last summer, I realised we have a serious lack of flowers and flowering shrubs in our garden, as well as most of our neighbours compared with urban environments. I have been trying to grow more flowers from seed in the greenhouse over winter to hopefully help them out a bit more this year. However everything appears to be in bloom early this year due to the mild winter we have had, and the canola fields not far from our house that were ravaged by beetles last season, are just coming into bloom. 


The girls are settling in well to their new home and have been very busy little...bees. We won't be collecting honey from them this year, but hopefully they can build up a strong colony before winter next year.

Our other hive is doing well and fingers crossed we may actually be able to get some honey from them shortly!