Using A Deep National As A Bait Hive

Last year I bought a few new poly hives very cheaply as they were in a closing down sale. The were deep national hives, also called 12x14s, at the time I thought this could work well, but my concern since getting them is that my girls will struggle with the inspections with the bigger frames. It's surprising the weight that is in a frame. 

I might still use these, but while we have some standard national hives I'll use those first. I still want to use them though, so I decided I'd use them as bait hives. 

Bait hives are used to try to capture wild swarms of bees, that have swarmed naturally (or from someone else's hives). 

Another Weekend Working In Wales

 I had another weekend down in Wales with dad. 

Got loads done.

My main job was to hang the garden gate and two external doors for the boiler shed and storage shed. 

A Swarm In April is worth? A Barrel of Maple?

 Just before I picked up the children from school on Tuesday I saw that the garden was full of bees. A Swarm in April! 

I went and got the children and told the girls to suit up. The warm landed in our neighbours garden, but before we could get set up they took to the air again. Luck was with us and they landed on the fence. 

Cooking With Fire And Smoke

This weekend my brother and I went on a cooking course. It was at the same place I did a fermentation course a few years ag - Harts Barn cookery school. 

I'm never sure what to expect on these courses, but I'll start by saying I was blown away by the afternoon. 

I will also say a bit of bad stuff, the course was cancelled twice, once for bad weather, which was fair enough, and another time because they had another event, which wasn't ideal from our point of view as stuff had to be rearranged. 

 

When the course went ahead though it really did deliver. It was an afternoon of some of the best food I've eaten in a long time, and I'm fairly sure we ate more than what the course cost! 

We made pork koftas and cooked them on the BBQ, then charred some asparagus and aubergine as well as orange. this then went with some cold smoked feta to make an incredible salad. 

We also roasted some baby gem lettuce and made some more salads. 

We cooked flat bread in the bread oven, and made baba ghanoush, and when added with the kofta it was one of the best sandwiches I've ever eaten.  

"Dirty" steak cooked on coals was another incredible eat. 

Roasted rhubarb and creme brulee (which had charcoal added to it as it cooked) was a great pudding. But we also had cold smoked salmon, a blade of beef that had been hot smoking for hours and hours, the food just kept coming. 

I swear I've never eaten so much food in one go before, it was a truly brilliant afternoon, I loved it. I came away with enough food for the five of us to have a full meal Sunday night and for our lunch boxes on Monday. the chef was good fun and the other people on the course were great as well. 

Trying To Tick Jobs Off

 So I've been trying to do little jobs and often, it's a way I can move forward while keeping everything else running in the background. 

One of the jobs I've trying to get done (since this time last year) is the sweet chestnut raised beds. I really hate having this timber stacked up and not being used. 

The idea was to have them at the bottom of the veg garden where it lies wet all winter. I'm hoping this will provide a bit of drainage and make this area a bit more manageable. 

So far I only have a few fixed in place and I' haven't filled them yet, but already it's given that area of the garden a bit of structure. I can't wait to get them planted up. I'm very tempted to have one or two fo them for strawberries and try to get better at growing that fruit! 

Let's hope I can get the rest in before the growing season really kicks off. 

Do you like growing in raised beds? Or do the negatives outweigh the positives?