Well i was wrong about ploughing under the full moon of March! It’s so wet we’re still unsure if ploughing this month will be a good idea or not.
With the equinox behind us and the clocks springing forward the season really feels like its changed. The orchard is starting to come back to life, leaves are beginning to show in the hedgerows and blossom on the cherries, hawthorn, willow and lilac are tempting the bees out on nice days or moments of sunshine.
Queen bumble bees have begun searching for nest sites- whilst we were cleaning the queen shed up we heard queens buzzing in and out of nooks and crannies.
Work begins soon towards bee breeding endeavours and we were disappointed to find one of our breeding colonies had decided to relocate into a box with no stores resulting in their demise, very frustrating !
We got a bit carried away picking trees from the nursery catalogue last month, and as a result in April we’ll be planting our first experimental row of trees to help us decide what we replace some of our aging cider trees with.
- April – Busy Planting! - 3rd May 2024
- March – Changing Seasons - 17th April 2024
- February – Everything’s waking up - 29th February 2024