Far Lands

We are picking lots of soft fruit at the moment. Some strawberries, lots of raspberries, a few gooseberries, red currants, black currants and a couple of hybrid berries. We grow loganberries and tayberries. It is difficult to tell the two hybrids apart although size is an indication (here anyway) as is their frequency. Tayberries (left on the top photo, above on the bottom photo), tend to be larger and give us a far better yield. They taste quite similar. They are both a cross between a raspberry and a blackberry. As with any fruit that does not come true from seed (which is everything that has different cultivars (for example in apples, Katy and James Grieve ) an infinite number of hybrids are possible. Hence, one day there may be as many hybrids of raspberry and blackberry as there are cultivars of apple.

On Sunday we inspected the bees and found some queen cells; they were capped which means a swarm is imminent. There are various options including doing nothing but that would mean you are likely to lose half of the bees when the old queen flies off with them. Another option is an artificial swarm, and after midnight discussions with Sarah, that's what I tried today. With one slight modification! We are unable to spot our Queen (v hard in 50 000+ bees when she is not marked) so rather than move the old queen as you are supposed I moved the queen cells. Before the move  ( empty WBC on left, full colony in National on right):- I placed a new brood box to the right of the old colony, then smoked the old colony like mad hoping to drive the old queen down to the bottom of the hive. Then took the super off the old colony and placed it to one side. Then took the half brood box (containing the queen cells) and put it on top of the new brood box to the right. Put its roof on.

You may remember me planting the foraging hedge in March 2013 (see blog No 103); if you don't it consists of over 100 trees, the idea being to provide food for the bees and us. There are 9 nine types of tree / plant but when I am doing my smallholding tours I can never remember all 9. So when we were flogging up and down in the Alps recently, I came up with the ABC of the foraging hedge . . . A - Apple B - Blackthorn C - Sea Buckthorn D - Dog Rose E - Elder F - funny tasting fruit, Medlar G - go and eat your hat, an admittedly oblique reference to a Pear, the explanation being that on an already in-situ hawthorn bush I have grafted a pear ( Beurre Hardy ) and if it produces any fruit then Sarah said she would eat her hat H - Hazel I - I-shaped growth, Willow The QUIZ for you is to work out / remember why I have planted those 9 varieties ie what type of foraging each provides and for who. After 3 years the hedge now looks like this . . .

. . . I'm talking chickens. Our two chicks (left and right, below, and then together) are now ten weeks old but we are still not sure what we have got. Sarah thinks one of each and her top tip is size of feet. According to her, boys have much bigger feet! Please get in touch with your predictions, suggestions and theories.