Agricultural Triathlon

Farrier Richard had unfortunately moved his planned visit for Thursday when it was very cool to today when the sun and heat was forecast to return. Luckily he came at 8:30 when it was relatively cool. Angie forced me out to take the dogs for a walk saying I needed to hurry as the road past the house would soon be closed for the annual Ottobeuren triathlon which starts with the swimming leg at our village's lakes.

In fact, by the time we had finished the walk, the road was still open but it was good for Flash that the walk was done in the cool. An hour or so later I did walk down the drive to capture one of the riders on his way to Ottobeuren. He "caught" my attention simply because it sounded as if a large tractor with even larger silage tank with those enormous wide wheels was approaching. It did, however, show that all the keen participants had already gone by and I was witnessing the hobby fun brigade of the over 600 starters who came by on all sorts of everyday bicycles and none of them was pedalling furiously.

I had tried in the morning to bake a loaf of pizza style bread using a bread making machine that I hadn't used for ages and have spent the last few weeks trying to find again after I bought a packet of fresh yeast. Last night while going through some boxes of beekeeping things I found it. All went really well for two hours during the dough kneading and resting periods but as the machine went to the baking stage, it blew the electrical fuse. I was able to get it out and into the oven and all looked well until I decided it needed another 10 minutes while I prepared so bits for the beehive inspection I was planning.

Went out to get something and somehow didn't return for over an hour. The smell of fresh bread was fantastic but the brick in the oven, while it looked good from the exterior, had a very thick and hard crust. I have managed to use half of it but shame it was largely spoilt.

The beehive inspection was also less than perfect and I didn't find everything as I had hoped. It seems mybees are far more interested in producing more offspring than in storing honey. Add to this, in the strongest hive I had thought I had excluded the queen from getting to the upper floors. I had used a standard wire mesh that stops her (she's too large) crawling through but as I have never liked the ones I have, I modified it a little. Seemingly there must have been a crack that she crawled through.

Finally, after an hour or two, all was done and having packed everything away and then checked the greenhouse and vegetable garden, made my way past the bees only to hear a lot of noise. Took a closer look and for a second thought one or more hives were about to swarm although there was no sign in the hives of them preparing for such an event. Watched them for a few minutes and then realised they had gone into a "robbing" frenzy somehow caused by my actions and causing chaos. Luckily after a few hours, it more or less ceased but was a worrying experience, the first time I have witnessed it.

I am still hoping to do a honey harvest in the next 10 days and am pleased that with the coming warmth again, there is still loads of normal flowers, nectar and pollen to keep the girls busy. I am not at all sure what the situation is for "forest" or "honeydew" honey. Will have to ask friend MrB.

Th return of the sun has meant that our PV unit just managed to produce more electricity than in May and April but it was a close call. It was though less than June last year by about two good sunny days.