Today we've been back in the hive and there is much to report. Aphrodite and the girls have been so busy! We have eight frames of honey in the top super, predominantly from the rapeseed fields that surround us. Interestingly, our bees fly up and out of the hive and then head off down the valley. It is wild bumblebees that are drinking the nectar from our flowers. The cat mint vibrates as you walk past and is covered in a shroud of variously coloured bumble bees emmitting a soft buzz. Beneath the queen-excluder we found Aphrodite, she looked radiant and was being nurtured by the nurse bees. The comb is full of brood which will hatch just in time to forage for the blackberry-flower blossom which fills the woods. Our second honey crop should be darker & sweeter than the pale spring crop from the rapeseed. We will be phoning Engelbert with our 'rookie's report'.
The bees allowed us to strim the cow-parsley infront of the hive today, revealing the roses 'snowgoose' and 'rambling rosie' in all their glory. Some shoots have been tied into the balcony to create a frame of roses. The others have been left free to cascade down the bank, around the baby pear tree, in wild abandon. Deep in the undergrowth we found a couple of frogs & a slow-worm tightly coiled against the mechanical whirr of the strimmer. We gently lifted him and placed him in the shade by the stream. Tonight we hope that he will dine on a feast of slugs & snails under the canopy of hostas.
