Candles and Butterfly's

Candles that I made from bees wax

I have been collecting the wax from my bee hives for a number of years and have been storing it away in old biscuit tins, used margin pots and empty ice cream cartons.

Over the years I've been planned to turn this excess and valuable wax into candles. I have even bought different moulds and wicks  from various bee keeping conferences and shows. However I had never used them. Until this week.

The candle burn't for about 12 hours

Briefly I started by melting some of the wax into a milk pan and then placing the liquid wax into a silicone mould into which I had placed the wick. I may give a more detailed guide in the future as I am still experimenting with different techniques.

I made 2 more over the for the next couple of days. Each candle was slightly different. The first was a nice and easy the second had a little pollen and honey in the mixture and the third using wax that was a little older.

So I had made 3 candles the first of which I have kept and the second I lit; it burnt for about 12 hours the pollen burnt and should be considered dangerous. The third I gave to my brother and his wife and they tested it. They found that after a couple of hours most of the candle wax had melted and the remaining candle would have continued burning. Similar experience to me.

I need to look into this, as it was a very enjoyable experience and would recommend it to other bee keepers with a surplus of wax. I have locate some of the other moulds that I have bought and will be trying them out too soon.

Down at the orchard all is well, however the pears that were still on tress have now disappeared. Some one, probably not birds has nabbed them, which is disappointed as even I didn't get a chance to try them. When I last looked at them I was tempted to pick them but thought I would wait a couple of days for them to ripen a little further. I should have picked them then and let them ripen at home.

Butterfly in the Orchard

Lots of butterfly's down at the orchard I have no idea the varieties and its something I should look into. I tried to capture them on film however it proved difficult trying to get into position to be able to get a good picture even with the zoom at max on the camera.

I still have some apples and the missing pears made me pick a couple and get them home. The grass still hasn't been cut.

Extraction of honey

Last week I took the honey from the orchard it wasn't loads and I left some in the hive I also took lots of wax. This year taking the supers from the hives was easy work the weather on the day was nice and I was able to check on the bees.

Its been a very strange year for me as a bee keeper. I havn't been able to get into the hives and check on the bees as I have done on previous years and in truth my weekly inspections just haven't happened. This has been inpart because of the weather, time constrains and my general tardiness.

However checking  on the bees on the day that I removed the suppers was great, the bees were very friendly and joyous to work with with. I normally extract twice a year once in April/May as many of the fields around the orchard have Rape Seed planted which is pretty when in bloom with its yellow flowers  however the honey crystlises quickly. I hadn't extracted that honey when I should have and much of the honey has crystalised in the honey comb and I wasn't able to get it out of the comb itself, instead I have given it back to the bees. What I have extracted though is lovely, one of the nicest and tastes honeys the bees have produced ever from the orchard. Im not sure if its because some of the honey would have been from a hive that was in my garden previously the hive was moved to the orchard and unfortunately won't be coming back to the house.

I used some new extraction processes which didn't work as well as expected however we also didn't make the usual mess. I borrowed the extractor from my friend but in future I may use the association facilities.

Down at the orchard all seems well I have checked on the trees, some of the leaves from the pear trees have started to turn red, I presume for the autum. The grass is still very long the farmer hasn't cut and baled it yet. I have apples and pears in trees in some trees.

So little fruit.

Fruit eaten by birds

While walking through the orchard this week I collected some plums and apples. I have stated previously that this years fruit harvest is smaller than previous years and it seems its going to be very much smaller. I collected  some plums, and noted the I still have some apples and a couple of pears on the trees way fewer plums that previous years and a disappointing year also for apples.

Honey Bee examining an eaten apple

However lots of the apples that I do have, have been pecked and and damaged by birds some have also been completed eaten. The pictures show this well.

I have also included pictures of some of the pears. The pears are still relatively small and some I have seen are a slightly deformed. Some of them do look lovely and I'm looking forward to being able to pick them.

Apple pecked by birds

In previous years I have had little success with pears however this year they are doing better. I still have a small harvest of pears but it will be better than in previous years. Again like most people I put it down to the weather.

Pears still growing

Different variety of pears

I am planning on extracting honey this week which also means that I will start applying the fondant that I have bought and I still have to order in the varroa treatment. I am borrowing an extractor from a fellow bee keeper. I can't be sure how much honey I will get this year but after meeting some other bee keepers this week I have heard that it is a poor harvest in my area, in the Midlands.I also didn't extract earlier in the year so some of the honey may have crystallised in the comb, we shall see and I'll let you know.

Still have plums and apples

Apple in the orchard

I was in the orchard last weekend with the kids and my wife. Apples are looking good, as are the plums. I tried both. The plums were delicious and will be picking some next week for a crumble and to give some away to friends and family. The apples still need some time, to mature and the birds have started to enjoying them. They seem to be pecking them and have damaged some but at least they are being enjoyed.It makes the apples look unsightly, as once they have been pecked the insides start to go brown just like a apples that had been cut open and left.

The three pictures show the cherry trees who's leaves have gone brown and the leaves are falling off.   They still have buds and I hope that they will recover for next year.I do have some doubts though. 

The kids had fun chasing butterfly's and looking for grass hoppers. My daughter was the first to find a grass hopper but she was a little scared to catch one.

My Daughter messing about in the orchard

I took pictures of various butterfly's and this was the best one. I have seen lots of moths also in the orchard. I must admit that lots of the apples are misshaped and have dark marks on them. They are 100% organic and I would like to make cider from some of them. The image at the start of the entry was of one of the better ones. I have a number of varieties that are growing not all have done well this year. I would have to admit that fruit wise this year has been a very negative year. I have fruit but not in the quantities of previous years.I can only blame the weather over the year. The dry start and then huge quantities of rain.