RSPB nature calendar 2013 entered

First time for everything so I have entered the RSPB calendar competition with my honeybee photo. As a total amateur and up against some fantastic photos don't stand a chance but you got to be in it to try! Take a look at the entries and find mine it's by junctiongirl and leave a comment by all means

Glorious March, Bees and Blossom

What a beautiful weekend it has been, glorious weather and so good for the bees who would believe it was still only March. I am happy to report that after inspecting our apiary all 12 hives have come through the winter.The bees are already extremely busy bringing in  the pollen and nectar from the dandelions, damson blossom and ribes from what  I can see in the garden.

 The opportunity today was to good to miss so I stopped my chores for half an hour in the garden watching the bees and managed to get some lovely photos.

http://www.photobox.co.uk/album/1195836298

I hope you all enjoyed your pancakes tonight drizzled with a little honey!!

I  have been really busy lately coming up with new ideas for our Wedding Favours, with the Spring wedding season almost upon us I am hoping for a busy time.

Here are a few of the new ones the others can be found on the favours page and can be bought in my etsy shop. I do hope you like them!! If you would like them customised in any way please contact me.

Bees Butterflies & Blooms

Bees Butterflies & Blooms by Sarah Raven on
Have you watched it? you must!!

We need more people like Sarah to help the plight of the Honey Bee and get everyone doing their bit.

If you have missed it watch it on iplayer now and catch up BBChttp://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b013pw23


Do not underestimate what you can do to help, even if it is only one pot of insect friendly flowers on the patio it all helps our bees and insects.

Keep up the good work Sarah

Valentine's Day

Wishing you all a Happy Valentine's Day!

A day for love and planning a future together, I wonder how many proposals there will be made to day?

On that note I am very excited, it has made me think of some new adornments for my wedding favours, I just need to try and source them from somewhere out there!

But I can tell you they will be themed!!

A Welsh Theme to go with Welsh Honey!!

February Inspection

Whilst the rest of the country battles with heavy snow here in North Wales it has been a beautiful day, almost spring like!! lots of sunshine and no need for hats and gloves!!

So as it was such a great day it was time to check on the bees and see if we have any disasters in the hives?

I am pleased to report all 12 hives are strong and healthy, and have come through the winter so far so good.

A little sugar paste has been given to a few hives to help their stores but the majority had enough food to see them through.

The bees were even out foraging today on the snowdrops.

Roll on the Spring

Talk at the WI

Happy New Year to you all !

It has been a bit quiet on the bee front during the last few months as there has been little activity from the hives. This is only to be expected however, we did see a few venturing out just before Christmas when we had that mild snap of weather.

I was asked by my local Women's Institute to do a talk this year on my beekeeping experience and I was happy to say yes, thinking it would be sometime in the summer. As this was a newly formed WI they were struggling for speakers so they asked if I could do the talk in January.

January!! oh goodness me, could I really go through with it so soon !!

Unaccustomed as I am to speaking in public, I set about writing myself some notes on bees so that I had all the information to hand should anyone ask me a question, ( my greatest fear, being asked something I didn't know the answer to). However my daughter got to hear what I was doing and told me not to be so boring!!

People don't want to sit there and listen to you spouting out a lot of boring facts, give them a summary of how you got involved with bees, she said and then take it from there.

So with her advice ringing in my ears and a few props to show them , off I set to the meeting. Surprisingly I was not nervous at this point as I thought I wouldn't be needed until half time, I would get a nice cup of tea and then I could prepare myself.

It didn't quite happen like that and I was called upon to do my talk within 30 minutes of arriving, no time to get nervous I was on!

I wont bore you with the details, but I can tell you that I had re-read all my blogs and used these snippets to tell my story, almost in the same format and it went down extremely well. With questions coming at me from all angles, I felt very proud to have been able to answer them all, thank goodness for my cribbing before hand.

During our tea break, (well earned I think) I was congratulated by everyone and thanked for telling my story, even the regional representative, wanted to put my name forward on the circuit to do talks.

So who knows I may be doing it again sometime in the future!!