Been a hot Easter

The past couple of weeks have been very hot. It was the Easter holiday and I have been home, with my daughter who had Chicken Pox. We went out to the orchard a couple of times, we have seen various butterflies. Some I had never seen before; perhaps I just hadn't notice them. One was very pretty it was white with the bottom off its tails a bright yellow. It looked like a flower petal. I have also seen lots of the other insects, every thing from black and gold coloured beetles, lots of ladybirds and ants climbing around trees particularly on the Almond trees.

I have physically removed some caterpillars of leaves from all varieties of trees. I must admit I have not seen many aphids this year, but we do have lots of ladybirds, and in reality I have not been looking for them.

The Rabbits are getting bigger and again lots of them around. None have damaged to trees which is a good thing.

The trees are fine, but they all need some rain. I feel sorry for them in a way. It has been very very hot for this time of year.The Qunice seem very limp, compared to the other trees. So I'm hoping for rain and lots of it. If no rain comes I will have to water, which will be on the weekend.

I did attend the British BeeKeepers Spring Conference in Stoneleigh. I attended on the Friday 15th and the Saturday 16th. On the Friday I attended a number of lectures and on Saturday, it was more the sales side of things, although lectures were on I wasn't able to make any, perhaps next year. I have bought a couple more hives and some candlemaking equipment. Will let you know how the candlemaking goes. I will write more about the lectures soon. No pictures mind.

Bees are swarming. I now have two bee hives on the orchard the first was doing really well but I sow 15 Queen cells I removed all bar two and have started to feed the bees in the second hive. Will check on them again in a couple of days.

The grass at the orchard is also getting very long, the plan is to cut a path around and so that its easy to walk around etc. That may be done this weekend. Depends on my brother and transport.