Bees and seeds

Some words from Farmer Paul …

…and Farmeress Doreen

The sun is shining but don’t worry CropSharers, by Saturday we will have light cloud and a cooling breeze to stop you overheating whilst undertaking your agrarian toils. ‘Farmer Paul, what are we doing?’ I hear you ask; well I have a veritable cornucopia of horticultural delights awaiting you. There will be pulling out winter veg stalks, sowing courgettes and squash, tractor planting lettuces and more broad beans. There is also some hoeing of parsnips for the beady eyed and maybe for the strong of arm and feisty of spirit there is the laying of the concrete pad. There is still the possibility that the polytunnel may be finished or the large one dug over; the delights available on the farm this weekend are infinite! Of course in the rare event that the Met Office have made a mistake these jobs might change.

Yours, dreaming of spinach,

Farmer Paul and Farmeress Doreen

We managed to do most of that on the farm this time- though the polytunnel covering still is one of those elusive tasks that keeps getting called off due to high winds! Sort it out Fenland, plant a shelter belt or more trees or summat!

As well as all that going on, we also had Rob and Bev of Oblique Arts come with packs of wild flower seed from the Grow Wild scheme, which they sowed on the farm!

Bev and Rob prepare land and sow out the Grow Wild wildflower seed

I’m glad that we are having more wild flowers on the farm this year, as they will make a good food source for the bees and other insect life. We put a new hive on the farm today, now we just need a swarm for it!

New hive placed with the existing hives on the farm

Checking up on the existing hives, the worker bees are bringing in loads of pollen, probably from the kale plants flowering in our field next door. This is a great sign as it means the worker bees are busy making bee bread to feed to new brood (baby bees) laid by the Queen. Nice one bee mates- you are thriving!

If you’re into, or want to get more into, bees I reccommend checking out http://www.biobees.com/.