What a joyful day - the sun is shining, the Rowan trees have berries on them all the way up the drive to Sutton Mawr Farm, and we have two brand new egg-laying queens in the two hives we split from the parent hives in recent weeks.

I saw the queen in one of the hives run across the top of the frames and will be marking her next week with a blue numbered dot.  This will tell me that she started laying in 2011 (each year has a different colour so that you know the age of the queen), and the number will allow me to start a family tree if we decide to breed from her.

I knew as soon as I opened the hives that the virgins had been successfully mated.  The bees were delightfully quiet and industrious and barely conscious that I was in the hive.  There was a calm, quiet and contented buzz which is indicative of a happy collective colony and a heralding of an assured existence.  For those of you who can't imagine why anyone would want to be messing around with insects, this is a time of rebirth and natural succession unfolding in front of your eyes.  There couldn't be a greater sense of satisfaction.

This is a frame of bees from one of the parent hives.  Can you spot last year's queen (green, numbered dot on her thorax)?

What appears to be empty cells in the middle of the frame, have eggs like a grain of rice in the middle of each one.  When I visit the hive next week, that eggs would have changed into a larvae and the week after will be capped with wax and the week after that will have emerged as a new bee. 

The wax capped cells in the middle of the frame have larvae pupating into bees in them. The flat ones are the workers and the lumpy ones raised from the surface are the drone males which are larger.  Just above the queen and to the right, you can see exposed drone larvae that haven't developed enough yet to be capped, but are just about ready for that.

The open cells around the edge of the frame are shiny with nectar that the bees have brought back in their honey stomachs.  The bees add enzymes to it and then fan to evaporate the water content and once it reaches the consistency of the honey we are familiar with, they cap it with beautiful white wax.  They use this to make bee food for the larvae and mix it with pollen for a mix of carbohydrate and protein that is very healthy for developing bees.

This is what a Thermo Beehive looks like.  Double celled industrial plastic for healthy bees, warm in the winter and cool in the summer.  The bottom box is called the brood box and this is where the queen and her attendants and a lot of the female worker bees are: drawing out wax and feeding the young.  This is also where the greedy boy drones are.  Above this box is the queen excluder which is an internal barrier to the queen moving up to where the honey is stored and laying in the comb that will eventually be extracted from the 'super' boxes above.

The alighting board is helpful to the bees.  They can land with their heavy nectar and pollen loads and then walk into the hive.  The entrance cover is there as shelter from wind and rain.

 And here is one of my girls, coming to investigate the early morning ruccus!  The entrance has a removable block (not seen) that has bee-size holes in it.  This will be inserted later in the summer to help the guard bees defend against wasps as it narrows the area to be protected.

29th June 2011

We had a very busy weekend at Sutton Mawr. On Friday we were joined by Bernice Wills and her 93 year old mother. Bernice's mother used to live in Barry.  During the second world war, she met her husband who was an american navel officer.  They both returned to the states after the war.  They travelled over on the Queen Mary 2.  They have meet up with relatives and can not believe how much the area has changed.

We had a family from Watford and another from Singapore. They collected eggs each morning.  I lost a few of them on Saturday morning as it was pelting down with rain.  Sunday was lovely.

This one of our guests doing some commodity trading! I don't think the mud was too appealing.

Today we moved the piglets about. Aunt Nell is leaving us tomorrow so we are worried that the piglets will start fighting. So we put 6 in one woodland paddock and  6 in the other. This sound easy but we ended up with 8 piglets running around the field.

 They loved playing on the muck heap. After 4 hours we manged to get them in to their new paddocks with a bit of help from some tasty food.  Daisy our youngest breeding sow is just about to give birth for the first time. I am checking everyday for milk production as this indicates that labour is only a few hours away.

Tomorrow we have to seperate the rams from the eves otherwise will will have lambs for xmas!

17th June 2011

Last night we had Mark Newton to stay with us, he camped in the meadow.  He is following the coast on a mobility scooter. It the first time it's ever been done. He is raising money for Help the Heros.  A film crew turned up at 7am to wake him up. Bacon sandwiches all round and then. Mark went off to Cowbridge, to meet the mayor.  He finishes in Llanelli on the 27th June. Good luck and Well done Mark!

We sourced local rolled barley from a local farmer called John Thomas.  He delivered a ton, which we feed to the pigs and the piglets. It needs to be soaked in water before feeding . Andrew Stoodley also delivered a large organic  bale of hay.  The cows we very excited, and happily tucked in immediately. The chickens were lording it too.

It's Vicci birthday today and Izzy our middle daughter is finishing her last GCSE.  So we decided to celebrate with a lunch in Cardiff.  Just as we going to leave we got our first visit from Environmental Health..  Lovely chap but we had to scrap all our plans. Vicci then spent the next couple of hours going through everything.  No major problems but not the best of birthday present. At first I think she thought it was a practical joke.

My mum came to the house this week , to collect her minature Labradoddle, she is called Charlie and came from a lovely home in Oxford.   They were coming to Cardiff to watch Take That.  She is a fantastic little dog and it has settled in really well.

 Charlie and Tiger Lily in the garden.

Contented Bees

What a lovely day - the first day of sunshine in a while and just perfect for a mating flight for the virgin queens in two of the hives.  By next week, assuming that they manage successful mating flights, I would hope to see evidence of eggs and perhaps, even some larvae. 

Here is a picture of the marked queen in one of the other hives.  Each queen is marked with a colour denoting the year of her birth.  In this case, blue means that she is a 2010 queen.

See how her abdomen is extended.  This is perfect for dropping her tail end into the bottom of the cells and depositing an egg there. 

The bees around her are her attendants.  Their job is to follow, feed and groom her as she is unable to look after herself.

14th June 2011

Lovely day. The band Take That are playing in Cardiff Millenium Stadium tonight. We are full of fans both tonight and tomorrow.

We laid on a cream tea and a glass of Pimms in the courtyard

Then they were ready to rock!

I think these ladies like Take That !

I had my feet sucked by hundreds of small fish at Dr Fish in Swansea. It was a really weird feeling. But I soon forgot about the fish as I was joined by Bonnie Tyler.  No not really but its a great photo.  My feet were a bit tingly after the15 min session.  Not unpleasant, will do it again.  In fact Dr Fish is so popular he is moving to bigger premises in Castle Street in Swansea - well worth a visit.

11th June 2011

Tizzy the hen and her 20 chicks arrived last night for our first hen party kicking off with a few Mojitos they sat down to a Moroccan Feast,  they all had a great night with a lot of laughter.

It was a beautiful morning, so we laid out breakfast in the courtyard for full Sutton Mawr cooked breakfasts all around.

Then a farm tour with Mark followed by white water rafting in Cardiff Bay which was a great success and are now tucking into a few drinks and heading into Cardiff for a night on the town.

The theme for the evening was the circus.  Watch out Cardiff they are on their way!

10th june 2011

I finished cleaning all the other chicken sheds today. I have to say I am pleased that is over!  Not the nicest job..

We had our first chick today a female Cotwold Cream Legbar.. It is one of only a few chickens you can sex at birth. Females have a black strip on their heads.  Hope to have more tomorrow.

We seived the flowers  heads from the elderflower mixture, and then into steriled bottles .. a brilliant drink for the summer

We have our first hen party this weekend Hannah is bringing 20 of her friends so watch this space!

Tomorrow I am going to clean out the cows. Nice change from chickens.

The honeysuccle has now come out in full bloom, it smells fantastic.

Flower our last puppy is off today to my sister in Somerset.  She loves dogs so I am quiet sure she will be completely spoilt.  We will miss them all.  We are keen to have puppies from Dora and Rosie.  But will wait as having Tiger lillie puppies was lovely and very rewarding but quiet a responsiblity.

Thursday morning hive inspection

It's really important to inspect hives on a weekly basis to avoid the bees swarming - not good as you not only lose the old, laying queen, but you also lose half your bees. 

Today was a beautiful day and it was a pleasure to be out with the bees.  The two hives I inspected with Vicki, were calm and happy and very productive.  The queens in both were laying well in a beautiful ovaloid pattern surrounded by pollen, nectar and capped honey for use in producing the food the developing larvae are dependent on.

We are busy building stock on this site.  So, over the last two weeks, we've isolated the productive queens and split them away from the rest of the hive.  The two hives that are now queenless by design, will have drawn down queen cells from larvae of the right age by now.  One hive is a week ahead of the other, so the virgin queen should have emerged.  With the poor weather over the last week, today would have been the first opportunitiy for her to attempt a mating flight so hopefully when we inspect next there should be evidence of eggs.

The second hive should have a queen cell in the final stages now, ready to be capped for the final stages of development before emerging next Friday.  Hopefully if the weather continues to be good, there should be evidence of eggs in a fortnight to three weeks.  Fingers crossed.

These, plus the two 'queenright' colonies make four on the site, with room for development later in the season.

For those of you buying honey from Mark and Vicci, you should know that my honey kitchen has been awarded 5/5 after a Food Hygiene inspection.  Furthermore, the Regional Bee Inspector for Wales has done an inspection on one of my apiaries and there is no evidence of disease in my hives - hurrah.  After all the hard but gratifying work to survive a harsh winter, early spring and now the June gap, here's hoping that we have a good summer so that the good work can continue positively.

The June gap is where the Spring flowers have stopped flowering and the Summer flowers haven't yet started.  However, there is some blackberry and some clover, and poppies are a good source of pollen.  If you can spare a patch of garden and you don't mind your lawn having some clover in it (heresy, I know!), then bramble and clover will live happily in many situations.  Besides, picking blackberries later in the year and cooking them in a pie with apples is one of the highlights of my Autumn, reminiscent of my childhood with real shortcrust pastry made from scratch - yummy. 

Jeannie Hainsworth Lamb

8th June 2011

Today we decided to clean out the free range chicken sheds. It was a massive task as there was evidence of red mite. Red mite is a very common insect which lives in the nooks and crevises.  Every year you should remove absolutely everything from the shed, remove all debris. Two shed took 12 man hours.  They are now as clean as the day they arrived.  We put down some herbal parsite prevention power and sprayed all the woodwork.

In the middle of this major operation, we were visited by  Ashgrove School. They were a great bunch of boys and they were soon picking the eggs

driving the tractor....

and picking up the chickens..

we finished with feeding the piglets. Jamie and Micheal are coming again next week, which we are all looking forward to. 

7th June 2011

I sheared the last sheep on the weekend, with the help from Denise.  It made a massive difference having someone holding the sheep. First, I tried to shear them on their back, then I tried them standing up, which was so much easier and kinder on your back. Below is a photo of the last ewe I sheared, and I have to say I am quite proud of it.

Now I can not wait till next year, to try again....

We are sending all the wool up to Hull to Pat who will work her magic. I know what my family will be getting for xmas..

The Elderflower cordial has be resting for over 24 hours, we know need to filter off all the solids and bottle. It smells delicious! 

5th June 2011

Early start this morning, the guests doing the Dragon ride needed breakfast at 6.30am.  Vicci did aga porridge.  Fat free and great for releasing energy slowly over the morning. 

The Shaun Griffith team.

Nick Hopgood and his daughter

We had a few families staying at the farm, so  we arranged a tour of all the animals and the kids collected all the eggs.

Today we are going to prepare edlerflower cordial. So I have cut 50 heads of  elderflower mixed it with a boiling water and sugar syrup along with citric acid. It needs to be left for 24 hours.  I will let you know how we get on.

4th June 2011

Yesterday we had Share Forrester here, who is doing the Iron Man in Tenby.  This consists of a 3 mile swim in the sea. 120 kilometer bike ride followed by a marathon.  She is 52. Lovely lady but must be a bit mad!  She will be doing a trial run this weekend so good luck.


We are full at Sutton Mawr this weekend. Today we have to change over all but one room, so it will be a bit manic.


We have Nichole Lehmann staying with her husband Robert and mother in law Joy. They have enjoyed 3 lovely sunny days here and are going today. They live on Vancouver Island and are doing a quick tour of Wales. Last night they stayed in the Gyspy Rose and had the best nights sleep of the holiday!

 Very romantic, not with the mother in law who had a luxury room to herself.

It is the Dragon Ride tomorrow.  I did it 3 years ago. It is 80 miles or 120 miles depending how brave you are.  It comprises of 3 massive climbs. The countryside is beautiful, the hills are painful!  We have a few cyclist staying with us. So breakfast will be extra healthy and early.

We have the  Wong family staying from Singapore. Who have come especially to Sutton Mawr to be close to the animals.  Where they live there is no chance of visiting a farm or seeing farm animals. The kids thought that chickens came from the supermarket!

We had our first honeymooners. Emma and her husband  stayed 3 nights. With the weather being so fantastic they could of mistaking thought they were in the south of France.

Darling  Darcy to be known as Henry now left today he has a lovely home with the Cole family locally.  All upset again!





Bertie also left Wales today for Victorias's sister Charlotte in Suffolk who has taken a sabatical to bond with the little thing and enjoy her young family over the summer.  Think he is going to be very spoilt.
Sure both Henry and Bertie will have lovely homes and we hope you enjoy them we miss them terribly already.
We only have Flower left now so she is lapping up all our love and attention.

2nd June 2011

Today was lovely with a slight breeze and rising temperatures - ideal for the bees.  They could fly after a week of wet weather.  This means that the boys (drones) can fly to their mating areas and the virgin queens can be mated.  The mating flights are the only flights a queen will make (other then swarming) and the first sign that she has been successfully mated will be eggs in the hive, laid in the middle of cells in the comb.  Beautifully little grains of 'rice' signifying the survival of the colony.
I recently took some honey off the hives and Vicci and Mark have some for sale if you'd like to try it.  It's primarily from Rape, with a texture like toffee and a taste that bursts on your tongue.  It's too precious for cooking as it's little filtered and cold extracted so as many of the pollens and oils remain intact as possible - just as nature intended.  Great in porridge or even by the spoon - yummy.
If you'd like to more about the bees, just let Vicci know as she intends to run some courses and come and share my passion for these wonderful, fascinating creatures.  Otherwise, follow this blog on Thursdays after I've inspected my colonies on the Farm.

1st June 2011

This morning we were visited by some children from Crossroads Care for Young carers. The first thing they did was to collect the 250 eggs.

After that we went to feed the Jacob sheep.

Then, the piglets.  they all went into the wood....











and some got stuck!

We checked out the Dexter cows

We finished with a treasure hunt

and a large lunch....

The puppies were a great hit....

It was lovely showing them round, and we hope we will see them again soon...