Spring honey harvest, swimming in the lake and new chicks

My little black and white bantams produced two small chicks this week

but abandoned other eggs in the nest so I removed them and popped them into the incubator.  Within an hour another chick had hatched.  

I added some eggs which a hen in the barn had left and during the following days four more chicks were born and are thriving in the brooder.  The television is having to compete with the cheeping coming from the kitchen end.

Friends, Debbie and Claire came over to help me with the bees on Thursday.  We inspected all seven hives.  

The one with the failed swarm had no bees and was removed.  The two hives which were formed from splitting my original hives were doing well.  I had put feeders in both hives on the advice of my mentor, Richard, and they had been emptied.  The other four hives were doing well too.   There were some frames filled with honey in all hives.  Some queen cells were removed and all the frames from one super were boxed and brought to the house.  We uncapped the frames and using the extractor spun the honey from the frames.

There was 2.5kgs of honey to pot up.   Later another 0.5kg had drained from the cappings and has been jarred for my own use in the kitchen.

Here is one of my honey bees on chive flower in my veggie patch.

Guests arrived on Thursday, a public holiday for Ascension Day in France, in both cottages for a long weekend.  The Tunisians in Middle Cottage bought one jar of honey and then asked for two more as they were leaving!  My first Rainbow Cottages Honey sales.

Very hot this week, 31°C in the shade yesterday afternoon, and this morning thunder, lightning and stair rod rain arrived at 0900hrs as forecast.  The garden plants and veggies will be very happy to have this good soaking and it will give the seven IBCs on the field a chance to refill too.  I have no mains water on the field and rely on rainwater collection from the barn roof so a good downpour is very welcome. 

A friend at bowls suggested a French supermarket flour which he uses for bread making.  I tried it this week and it seems to produce the same good results as the strong white flour I usually bring back from England.   This is good to know for emergencies, although as it’s more than twice as expensive than English supermarket flour, I will continue to bring flour back with me and encourage visitors to bring it too although for the moment my stocks are good.

Veggies and flowers are all growing well and the garden is beginning to look quite attractive.  

I am regularly picking a big handful of strawberries which I eat while still on the field – I can’t wait long enough to bring them down to the house and they are rather lovely while still sunshine warm.  

The yellow rose on the driveway has been beautiful these last two weeks.

On Monday it was my Workaway's 50th birthday.  We went for lunch in Caurel and then down to the Lac de Guerledan.

There was not another soul on the beach when we arrived.  I walked to the edge and paddled to see what the temperature was like. 

It was so lovely that I gave in, took off my trousers and went in swimming with my camisole and knickers - they're both all black and look a bit like a swimmer ...  I hope ...

Lots of bees around the house a few days ago and I had hoped that they would go into a bait hive.  They seemed to be taking up resident in the studio chimney, when I opened the woodburner bees flew out into the room.  I had to light the fire to smoke them out and discourage them.

Yesterday afternoon there were two separate groups of bees interested in something on the ground on the field.  We put a bait hive down and when I went up later bees were going in the hive and staying but, of course, they won't stay unless their queen was with them.   I'll have to wait and see but don't really feel too positive about it.  Still, it's all learning - and it is a steep curve ...

Three things I like:

1.   Having new chicks again.
2.   Having nice guests in the gites.
3.   Finally finishing clearing and cleaning the studio after a mouse infestation - thank you Maggi!

The Middle of May in St André

A previous Workaway has returned to help me here in St André as he'd run out of funds and needed somewhere to lay his head and be fed.   It was ok as I had lots of work to be done here and no new Workaways booked until July.  We've weeded, cleared nettles, fixed perches, moved fences, shifted feed and water and generally been busy this week with everything that needed doing.   

The weather has definitely been much better for everything with lots of rain to fill up the six 1000 litre water containers and four house baths I have on the field, after so long without any rainfall.  Now it seems to have settled down with rain at night and sunshine during the day - in my view, the way things should be.  Yesterday was a beautiful day and I spent two hours lying in the sunshine reading a book I started years ago, laughing aloud at the keen observations in Bill Bryson's "Notes From A Small Island. 

I still miss Gracie, my third cat, who disappeared nearly two months ago, but Claude and Purrdie are here and enjoying life.
  

Three hens and two ducks are sitting on eggs.  They seem to have been sitting for ages so may not be going to hatch anything - I'm giving them until 21 May now, as it's a three week incubation period and if they haven't produced anything I shall remove the eggs and stop them sitting.   The chicks hatched in the middle of March are all doing well and growing fast.  

With the help of friend, Kate, I checked my four hives for queen cells and having found two frames with them I transferred one each to my two new empty hives along with two frames each of brood and honey.  The hope was that the queens would hatch and the hives will thrive.  However, three days on and one hive is showing no signs of activity at all. The other hive is extremely busy at the entrance, this was the one which had a very large queen cell, and I feel confident that this one has been successful.  I may have to do another split later to try and begin the failed hive again.   Here's a bumblebee enjoying one of my wallflowers in the drive.

The seeds in the polytunnel have been growing well and the perpetual spinach, curly kale and broad beans are now all planted out in the raised beds.  The first runner bean leaves are just poking through the compost in the cardboard loo roll middles into which I planted the seeds, the corn on the cob is well over 30cm high now and ready to be planted out as soon as the three ice saint days have passed and the risk of overnight frosts has passed. Les Saintes de Glace are the days of St Mamert (11 May), St Pancrace (12 May) and lastly St Servais (13 May) and no self-respecting Breton veggie grower would put tender plants out before these days have been crossed off the calendar. 

If all goes to plan I should be able to supply vegetables to the whole village this year!  I have sown carrot, beetroot and radish seed this week and have plants of squash, aubergine and courgette to plant out now the three ice saint days have passed.  I was late putting in my potatoes this year, but have only buried the contents of the free bag I received from Point Vert as I need the ground for other more interesting veggies.  The strawberries are doing well and I have had several bowls full this week - here is the first one

as are all the soft fruit bushes, red currant, black currant and gooseberry.  I have been picking rhubarb since the beginning of March and cooking it with ginger and sugar.  It makes a lovely cordial to put with sparkling white wine.  

Today I planted out sweetcorn plants and butternut squash from the polytunnel and the ground is being cleared where the peas are to be grown.  I need to find some pea sticks for supporting them.

It's the time of year for tax returns and so Blandine visited me as usual and completed the form with the few figures which need to be inserted.  This has been posted and another task can be crossed off the To Do List.  She recommended an electrician for the repair of my pond pump and stair lift.  

He has done the pond electricity supply but thought the stairlift might be a long and therefore expensive task as he wasn't familiar with it.  He returned a couple of days later with reconnected wires in the incubator which had become disconnected and had spoken to Stannah on the 'phone so will return with a possible solution.

I had coffee with some friends near Kergrist Moelou last week and took photos first of the church there, also one of the hollow yews in the churchyard.

This is just one of the many hollow yews in the churchyard - the photo doesn't do the size justice.

The Silfiac Plant and Craft Sale somehow resulted in me having a boot with plants in it when I left.  I met friends there I hadn't seen for a while and had a coffee with the biggest piece of lovely moist date and walnut cake.  All the plants found places in the garden within half an hour of getting home.

My first rose in the driveway, and just two of my neighbour's beautiful irises.

Three things I like:

1.   Planting out the seedlings that have been growing in the polytunnel.
2.   Seeing my first cuckoo flying across the lane.
3.   Knowing I have friends who care.