Lovely morning chit-chat thread- March 2025

Morning everyone, goodness, I feel like a gentleman of leisure with just the one appt to see the consultant tomorrow. Hope you all get through the week with the results you are looking for and find time to pursue your various hobbies - so important!

Well my hobby at moment is talking, about the only thing that is working right.

Hope they do some thing regarding my eyes, some thing you take them for grated, so my hobbies at moment on hold.

Have a good dy.

Morning everyone, sorry about the late reply,

 eddiel I’ve not had the guts or the skill for that matter to make my own for scratch I do by them pre cut and assemble myself. Where the hive you built standard type ie pile of box’s or something a bit different? I can tell by your picture of your other arty work you will have done a good job.

 Leelaloo Thank you Lee for the welcome.

 I look forward to next March when we see the results lol.

 BoxOfFrogs again thank you for the welcome. It was a tough year last year for the bees I lost one colette in spring because of starvation. So have been very vigilant sense and all gone through winter with plenty of fondant. I have 4 hives but I don’t think one will make it and you never know.

 Alana01 hi Angie&Lilly thanks for the welcome.

Hope you get back in the saddle soon.

Good luck with the sign language. I tried to learn a few years back, I used to work with a deaf lad and on a Friday afternoon we used to go to the pub and meet up with all of his deaf friends it was quiet weird to be the one that couldn’t understand what was being said.

 anndanv hi Annette,

Unfortunately been stung is an occupational hazard. Most of the time it’s down to me for not being careful enough.

Well I think that me caught up Off to get my pre chemo bloods done the to go get the vac fixed.

have a good day everyone 

Ian 

Morning everyone I hope you are all doing as well as you can. Sorry for the late reply eddiel but I have been busy pottering in the garden and going out for lunch with my nephew and sister. I usually try to plant potatoes, cabbages, leeks, strawberries. Sadly the slugs snails caterpillars and butterflies eat quite a lot of them. This year I am not planting anything,apart from strawberries.. I think the soil will appreciate the break. What do you grow and how do you reduce the amount of loss to critters! Enjoy the day and stay positive xx

Good morning everyone,  Ian when I was growing up in South Africa I used to have riding lessons from a very eccentric 89 year old lady.  She lived in a little tin house that she built herself.  It had no electricity or running water.  We had to go to the back of the room to fetch our tack for the horses.  She had a wild hive/nest of bees living in there and I mean there were hundreds of them.  She always said if you dont disturb them, they wont disturb you and I never got stung once.  She also had a venomous puff adder that lived under the water tank and that never bothered us either.  She really was an original and I loved her.  Once when I complained about the goats smell, when we clearing the manure she threw a shovel full over my head and said it is an honest earth smell.  The funny things we remember.  Hope everyone has a good day.

Lee 2 x

Hi Ian, my understanding of bee hives was and still is, very limited, they were basically a box, made with slats of overlapping Douglas fir, with a landing/acces area, a sloped roof with enough space inside for 8 honeycombs!, PS if you make something that looks like you might get a few quid for, it's likely to be stolen.

Eddie 

Talking is important too. Hope they manage to sort out your eyes.

Eddie,it sounds like a nuc box a very useful and important bit of kit.

Hive theft is big problem believe it or not a hive of bees with honey on can be worth a £1000. The worst thing is it’s got to be bee keepers that steal them.

Morning Sharon, no need to apologise, my allotment is quite large 60 meters × 20 meters and organic, I'm lucky my youngest daughter is a farmer, so I have plenty of manure, to give everything I plant a good start and cover young tender plants with fine netting or fleece if needed, and I have a weed that grows which the caterpillars love, so leave them in, and only use rain water, tap water is no good where I live, 

My favourite veg are tomato's, peppers sweet &chilli, all beans, caulis, courgettes, salad leafs and onions 

I have 23 fruit trees, 15 berries, grapes, kiwi and rhubarb.

If bugs are a problem I spray with water with a tiny bit of washing up liquid in.

Eddie xx

Absolutely Ian, I live in Yorkshire and there's no shortage of hive bees who have set up colony's of their own, and if they set up one where it's likely to cause a problem, you can ask for it and if you have a safe space where the bees can access sufficient food, they will bring it to you, and the local bee keepers society will gladly give you a hive and help in getting started, but they have to steal. Bs.

Eddie