Wettest week so far

Its been a very wet and windy week. The trees have taken a massive pounding. I'm not sure how much rain has fallen but on Sunday as I walked through the orchard with the wind pushing the trees and the rain pouring I was fearful for a couple of the trees.

The wind was pushing the trees and forcing the trunks forward and as trunk went forward the soil was also moved and water was filling the gap that remained. This was occurring on a couple of trees and not many. A whole line of pear trees were visibly affected but as soon as the wind dispersed the trees went back to the original position. The manure that has been placed under the trees maybe helping to keep the trees in place, but it also absorbs the water. In some part the orchard it was water logged. Most of it where the willow trees have been planted. The willow was planted on that spot to help absorb much of the water.

Most of the trees however were standing tall and strong, enduring what nature was throwing at them. In fact one line of cherry trees seemed to be enjoying it, the blossom still visible and not falling. Most of trees seemed to be retaining and not relinquish the blossom petals which strangely made me fell proud of the trees. They looked nice standing up straight while gusts of strong winds pushed them.

I am hoping for a couple of days of warmer weather to help evaporate some of the water, and the rest to be absorbed by the trees, and nourish them and encourage them to grow.

The weather was so bad that even the rabbits were just sitting around and watching me wonder around the orchard. Normally they dart of and disappear the moment they see me. The didn't look soaked mind, not like a dog that's been in a stream or heavy, rabbit fur must be more water repellant.

The apple blossom starting to open, although the buds all look ready to open. The Kurgistan tree is now in full flower though I didn't get a chance to smell the blossom. This trees was a gift and a tree that originates from the east where apples originally came from.

No chance to check on the bees, however the day prior I had applied feed to some other hives. This coming weekend is going to be one weather permitting to concentrate more on the bees and ensure they have adequate food and stores. I will also have to apply more manure to trees and check that the recent weather has not damaged or moved the trees themselves.

Start of a very wet week lots of blossom around mind

I checked on the bees at the orchard they have food but over the past few days its been pouring down with rain and im a little worried about them as the bees won't be able to get out and bring both pollen and nectar back to the hive. Its an important time of the year for bees so that they can build up the numbers for the summer. If it continues to to rain like it has over most of the UK, bees will go hungry, and some may starve. I will check on them over the weekend and if required I'll  feed them some sugar fondant. I still have some from the winter months and I will use that up first and if more is required then I will make some sugar syrurp.

Plum Blossom

 I checked on the trees, all well and I can see lots of rabbits around, but no noticable damage. I have seen loads of rabbit dropping around some of the smaller trees and I can see they are trying the knaw the bark, the new rabbir guard are working.

Cherry Blossom

Lots of blossom around most of my cherry trees are in blossom now as are some of the pear trees, the blossom on the plum trees are dwindling. The apple blossom has not started though the buds are getting fuller as you can see from the pictures, apple blossom is great, it smells lovely.

Apple Blossom

I have even started spreading more bovine manure around under the trees. I managed to get 18 trees done in less than 2 hrs which for me is good, though they were the trees nearest to the manure.

More Apple Blossom

One of my aunts came and visited the orchard with me this week and had some advice for me and was pleased with what I've done to date., she was a little surprised but pleasantly  surprised .

Listening to your bees

19th April 2012 Sutton Coldfield Bee Keepers Lecture

The lecture was held by Martin Bencsik, an academic from Nottingham Trent University

Martin's father is the bee keeper and Martin has been working on listening to two hives using an accelerometer.  He explained and gave examples of animals and young children communicating with owners and parents through sound. The dogs howling when left outside shops and toddlers laughing when happy.

He described the device he has been working on as a non invasive diagnostic monitoring tool. He explained some basic physics like all solid objects vibrate. Bee hives vibrate and make a noise. Axel Michelsen discovered this some time ago and he also discovered the waggle dance.

Bee wings vibrate at 250 Hertz which is a very low frequency and the waggle dance is performed at 76 Hertz.

Martin also told us that bee's were busy at all times of the day and night. Even at midnight the bees are busy within the hive. However he wanted to listen to individual conversations and this was called the cocktail party problem a mathematical called Karl Pearson had previously looked at this problem, of ignoring lots of conversations at a dinner party and listening only to one converstation. He came up with a principal component analysis theory , which Martin has been using to listen to individual conversations. Using that technique he has been able to identify six statistically independent activities/converstations. However he still doesn't know what these six different conversations are about.

During his research 1 swarm event was physically observed and the swarm produced so much noise in the hive that it silenced all the other conversations. The data that the sound produced means that Martin is confident that he can identify when a swarm has occurred. You could see the noise alter upto 10 days prior to the swarm leaving. The noise that occurred prior to the swarm was only found in the swarming session. He can see from the data he had a couple of other swarms however these weren't physically observed by a person so could not be verified.

In autumn he also noticed a distinct change in sound when the varroa treatment Apistan was applied. Possible the message to clean up the hive because of the chemical used within Apistan.

Short term Martin has plans to develop a device which will retail at about £30 and long term he wanted to develop a device that check the health of your bees alerts you when they are likely to swarm via email or sms and when they actually do swarm. He wants to be able to inform you your hive is queen less or are hungry or even if the hive has a varroa infestation, or a nosema infestation. Thus reducing the need to visit your hive. Ideally the cost per device will eventually be down to less than £10. He has promised memebers of the Sutton branch will be given one as part of the testing phase.

Most of Martins work is based in France and the National Bee Unit based in York is interested, as are the European Union who have funded his research.

It was an interesting talk.

Cornwall April 2012

I visited Cornwall for a couple of days. A nice  long weekend and managed to visit a couple of orchards firstly Chyan Community field. Its a nice place set  in the Cornwall countryside and on a steep hill. The volunteers are better organised than I am, that's very clear. They have upto 150 volunteers and on the day I visited they were holding a course on medicinal herbs, which I would have liked to have attended.

They have planted a number of orchards at different times and its was interesting to see that they made mistakes in the early days and have learnt from the mistakes.
The first orchard that they planted a number of years ago they planted the trees far to close. Further orchards have been planted with much more space in between the trees. They  also have raised beds in which they grow vegetables for the local community. The raised beds were a pretty simple design not using expensive wood but rather the tree bark of trees and some supporting wooden frames. Because they are on a sloop they have had to be built at an angle, and seem to do the job well, impressive and worth a look.

They have lots of sculptures made from willow, which my kids loved, willow tunnels and a set of swings its a kid friendly place though I think some older people may have difficulties with the incline.

Willow structure at Chyan Community Field

I meet a lady called Betty who showed me around and gave me the run down on the project and some of its history. She is a very nice lady and I only wish I had more time to sit and talk.

Later that day we went in search for Kea plum jam. A speciality jam from Cornwall which comes from the Kea area.

Kea Plum Orchard

At first we visited the Kea area and talked to some of the people we met. Kea is made up of a small number of small villages and we met a couple of dog walkers and asked them questions about Kea and Kea plum jam. Most were aware of Kea jam and had no idea where we could get some and if it would be available in April. When we asked about the orchards we were told about Kea Woods and informed that they contain the trees. So we visited the woods had a brief look around but by now it was pouring with rain. Though the woods were nice and contained what looked various trees but not enough plum trees to make large quantities of jam.

Kea Plum Orchard 2

The following day we visited Old Kea and came across Kea tower. It's worth a look, a great tower covered in ivy. I meet an elderly chap who told me that the Kea orchards were in Coombe which was about half a mile from where we were and so we were off to check out the Kea Orchards.

BlueBells along paths in and around orchards

We found them within a couple of minutes and on route we found a house selling Kea Jam. We bought some and placed the money in an honesty box. £3 a jar.

The orchards were in bloom. It looks like the trees will be in full bloom within a week or two. Whist walking around the orchard I saw people gathering wild garlic, and some of walkers. The undergrowth beneath the trees is full of bluebells this time of year in some of the orchards. In others I saw wild flowers. My son and I saw pheasants wondering around the orchards and even a woodpecker.

Kea Plum Blossom

We also found a butchers farm shop nearby and stopped to pick up a couple of bits for a family barbeque that evening. The farmer who owns the farm shop was around and I stopped and had a chat with him. He was a very elderly gentleman who showed us his long horned cows and the Peacocks that he had been breeding for a number of years. He had started with three birds and had built up to fifty three peacocks at one point. However he no longer breeds them as the chicks aren't doing to well anymore, too much inbreeding, which is a shame. He was a very nice man who had lots of stories and information that he could share. Again I only wish I had more time, to hang out and learn and chew the cud.

Peacocks at Farm Shop near Kea

Blossom and Fungus around the Orchard

It was a very wet and cold Easter bank holiday. I checked on some of the bees not all, as it was raining and then checked on the trees. Lots of the trees are in bloom and look great.

This week it does seem to be the time where the pear trees are in blooming. Its nice seeing the different varieties in blossom. I have generally planted three of each variety and its easy to see the differences in the blossom from the flowers. This week I had three varieties of pear in bloom in a single line. One variety was much brighter and the blossom much whiter than the other varieties this was the  Durondeau variety of pear. I haven't had much success with some of the pear trees and I'm hoping that this year they will make an impact.

I have also found a number of very small caterpillars on some of the Quince trees they seem to being going after the buds and the leaves. The caterpillars are very small 3/5 mm in size so attracting small birds to nab they may be tricky.

I also found the remains of a rabbit and a bird so it looks like I am attracting some predators.

I also found a strange fungus on the ground it was only under one tree. Anyway took a couple of pictures, perhaps some can let me know what it is.

It was a nice weekend mind

Trees in Blossom

Damson in Bloom

The trees have started to blossom and its a couple of the new plum and some of the older damson trees that are now fully in bloom. Its nice to see the trees with blossom on, its even better to get your nose into the blossom and check out the scents, though not all blossom has a scent. I  have checked the trees and I have noted some new additional rabbit damage, I need to put up large guards around some of the trees. The trees that I protected originally with handmade rabbit guards seem a little small for the job. Those trees are in need for a little  further protection. Five of the rabbit guards had been removed and the bamboo sticks removed, it was close to the entrance and it looks like it may have been children from the livery nearby. I spoke to the kids dad when I saw him and I think he will talk with the kids and that should deter the kids from removing any more.

More Rabbit Damage

Lots of the trees look like they are about to blossom or the leaves have started to open and grow. I may spray an organic pest control, to keep the number of aphids down. I can see lots of ladybirds around but this decision will be made if I feel the aphids are winning.

I still haven't been able to put more manure around the trees and I not sure when I will be able too. I hope over the long weekend, coming up soon.

I didn't water the trees this week but we did have some rain and a little ground frost. We had a good down pouring yesterday, and may get some more over the coming days.

My son was down the orchard with me last weekend and he likes to hang off the fence and swing on it. This weekend he was holding on and went over the fence head first. When he went over I was worried, he might have broken a rib or something, but after a few minutes he was fine. I rushed over and got him to stand up straight way which in hindsight may have been a mistake. If he had hurt something more serious it may have made matters worse. After a couple of minutes he was running around and jumping so we was  fine. He was embraced by the incident and didn't want me to tell his sister.

The bees are and about, I haven't put out any supers yet. I found wax moth larvae in the wax and so am replacing both the wax and the frames. I have also burnt out the supers themselves to kill off anything that might have been around, that includes some viruses.