News from the Vicarage
The Vicarage has some new residents! Two bee hives now sit tucked away on the ‘top lawn’. They’ve been with us now for about three weeks and it is hard to imagine life without them. The minute the sun is out the bees are out and about in the garden and further afield. There is a true ‘bee’ line across the bottom of the garden where you can see bees taking off and coming in to land, like an airport runway. They then land on their landing board and crawl into the hive with large sacs of pollen tucked between their legs.
When Erika and Maurits Dolmans were looking for somewhere to site their hives and the new bee colonies that were on order, we were delighted to be able to help. We know nothing about Bee keeping but we hope to learn a bit this summer! The two hives have names – Sage and Alma. Starting out initially as a small nucleus or ‘nuc’ the bee colonies in each need to grow so they are inspected regularly to check that all is well, that they are collecting pollen and that the Two Queens are laying eggs. At the moment ‘Queen Alma’ seems to be taking a break from laying for some reason, so if she doesn’t buck up, the bees will create a new Queen to replace her – no room for complacency!
It’s very therapeutic watching the bees come in and out but it is also great to think we are helping support our bee population which is on the decline.
In other news, the exterior decoration of the Vicarage, which started in mid-March, is now completed at long last. The scaffolding has gone and we can come and go from the garden without having to crouch down! The house looks extremely smart and hopefully it won’t be long before we can welcome visitors back.
