tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44318829777026348322024-03-08T04:31:00.413-08:00John Carey's BlogJohn Careyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02443501280182565490noreply@blogger.comBlogger70125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4431882977702634832.post-33868411635532307592019-09-26T05:07:00.001-07:002019-09-26T05:07:46.101-07:00Books and BeesOn Sunday 13 October at 6.30 I shall be taking part in an event at the Cheltenham Literary Festival (full details on the Festival website). It will be chaired by Dominic Sandbrook. The other participants will be Lara Feigel, who will be talking about Doris Lessing's <i>The Golden Notebook</i> (and also about her own memoir <i>Free Woman, Life, Liberation and Doris Lessing</i>) and Laura Freeman, who will be talking about Douglas Adams's <i>The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy</i> (and also about her memoir<i> The Reading Cure, How Books Restored my Appetite</i>). I shall be talking about William Golding's <i>Lord of the Flies.</i><br />
Bee news is good on the whole. We are ending the season with three strong colonies, the most recent being a swarm hived by John Heathcote who spotted it just at the end of Lyneham village street in June. We have harvested about 200lbs of honey.<br />
There was an interesting incident in February. Some neighbours in the village have a field where they keep a couple of horses. Last summer a swarm of bees made a nest between the inner and outer walls of a wooden shed in the field, and proved ill-tempered. The neighbours asked for help, and I advised leaving things till February when the colony would be at its smallest and the honey store (which cascades everywhere if you try opening up a wild colony in summer, and the bees drown in it) would be depleted. This proved good advice. When John and I and the neighbour, who is a carpenter, cut a panel out of the shed wall to reveal the colony, there were relatively few bees and almost no store. The bees has cleverly fitted four long strips of honeycomb, fanned out like a hand of playing cards, between the inner and outer walls (a space not much more than 6 inches from back to front). Using a good deal of smoke, we cut the combs out, put them in a cardboard box, and took them up to an empty hive in the apiary, hoping we would manage to have got the queen. We had not, and the remaining bees died out. But at least the neighbours could tend their horses unstung.John Careyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02443501280182565490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4431882977702634832.post-26360211946101097652019-01-02T04:41:00.000-08:002019-01-02T04:41:47.799-08:00BeesThe drought in the summer was bad for bees. The nectar flow stopped and we found ourselves having to feed the bees on a light syrup in midsummer. Ridiculous. Also one colony died - not, I think, the result of varroa because we had used the oxalic acid treatment in the winter. So the honey yield was small, not much more than 75lbs. On the other hand we hived a couple of swarms. one of which was small and may not survive the winter, but the other seems healthy and vigorous. So we seem likely to start the spring with two colonies. or three at best. We plan to treat them with oxalic acid, using the electric wand method, next weekend.John Careyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02443501280182565490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4431882977702634832.post-38840425520438735742018-04-29T11:31:00.001-07:002018-04-29T11:31:30.016-07:00Bees and BooksIt's a weird season for bees - a mini heatwave, followed by the return of winter. Our two colonies seem to be surviving - so far.<br />
In January we used a new anti-varroa method which entailed vaporising oxalic acid crystals using an electric wand sited under the hive's mesh floor. This seems to have worked well. There was a heavy drop-out of mites. We repeated the treatment after a week.<br />
Book events coming up are:<br />
1. A Q&A with David Grylls about <i>The Essential Paradise Lost</i> at the Chipping Campden Literary Festival on Tuesday 8 May at 10.30 in the Upper Room of the Town Hall.<br />
2. A talk on "William Golding and Humiliation" at the Cornish Luncheon Club on Thursday 10 May<br />
3. A Q&A on <i>The Essential Paradise Lost</i> at the Chalfont St Giles Literary Festival on Thursday 17 May at 3.30 in the Reading Room on the High Street.John Careyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02443501280182565490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4431882977702634832.post-78853051159037751782017-08-08T04:58:00.000-07:002017-08-08T04:58:16.761-07:00Books and BeesOn Thursday 17 August I'll be taking part in a discussion at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. I'll be talking about <i>The Essential Paradise Lost </i>and sharing a platform with John Stubbs whose<i> Jonathan Swift, The Reluctant Rebel </i>was published earlier this year. So this will be a chance to compare and contrast two literary giants. It will be chaired by James Runcie and will take place in the Baillie Gifford Corner Theatre at 14.00.<br />
It has not been a bad year for the bees. The hive containing the swarm that John Heathcote captured is thriving, and so is the new colony bought from Paynes. We did a varroa test on the hives a few weeks back and found that mites were present. So I put MAQS on both these hives, having checked that they had six frames of brood (the minimum for MAQS treatment). The bees did not seem at all disturbed by this. The queen we introduced to the third hive has been accepted and started laying about a week after she was introduced. But the colony is now very small and I am afraid they may not have time to build up survival strength before the winter. I'm feeding all three hives as foraging seems to be almost over for the year. The blackberry flowers came early and have now finished and the ivy is forming tods but is not yet flowering.John Careyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02443501280182565490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4431882977702634832.post-77369467526308217162017-07-06T09:55:00.000-07:002017-07-06T09:55:18.896-07:00Bees an BooksOn Tuesday 11 July at 10.00 I'll be talking about <i>The Essential Paradise Los</i>t with Pippa Warin of the Arts Council, as part of the Dartington Ways With Words 2017. The venue will be the Great Hall.<br />
Dartington is a surpassingly beautiful place, and worth visiting just for the pleasure of being there - let alone the events.<br />
My bees are enjoying the hot summer, though I'm feeding them thin syrup (2 pints to a kilo of sugar) as they are not near a water-source and In Oxfordshire we are in the middle of a quite serious drought. One hive went queen-less a few weeks back so we (or rather John Heathcote, who was on the spot while I was in Oxford), introduced a new queen a fortnight ago. We are hoping the bees will accept her.John Careyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02443501280182565490noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4431882977702634832.post-3424236355930248332017-06-05T13:57:00.000-07:002017-06-05T13:57:43.479-07:00Books and BeesI shall be talking about <i>The Essential Paradise Lost</i> with John Cox at the Salisbury Book Festival on<i> </i>Thursday 8 June at 11.30 in the Salberg Studio at Salisbury Playhouse.<br />
The bees are having an odd season with alternating hot and cold and drought and deluge. On the whole they are making out pretty well and I have about 40lbs of honey so far which is reasonable for one hive. The good news is that John Heathcote, driving near Bruern, ran into a swarm a few weeks ago and, more importantly, followed it till it settled on a hedge and then got it into a skep and, later, into one of my empty hives. After a few anxious weeks the queen started laying splendidly and the colony is growing stronger by the day. Last Saturday I drove over to Maisemore Apiaries and collected a new colony on six frames for the hive that the mice destroyed last winter, and the new bees are now installed. They seem good-tempered and industrious.John Careyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02443501280182565490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4431882977702634832.post-27225258728445661122017-03-12T03:19:00.000-07:002017-03-12T03:19:12.243-07:00Bees and BooksMy shortened version of Milton's <i>Paradise Lost</i> will be published by Faber and Faber this week. There is a piece about it in today's Sunday Times Culture section. I shall be talking about it with David Grylls at the Oxford Literary Festival at 6.00 on Wednesday 29 March (details on the Festival website).<br />
Bee news is bad. I lost two of my three colonies over the winter. One was destroyed by mice and they seem to have got in through a hole drilled in one of the lifts by a woodpecker - the first time I've ever known this to happen, though I've often read about it. The other I'm pretty sure, from the state of the frames, died of starvation - and yet there was a super on the hive with ample stored honey. I guess that it was too cold for the bees to reach it. The kind of winter we have had, usually mild (so the bees stay active and eat a lot of their stores) with sudden cold spells (when they are caught out and can't leave the central cluster) can be fatal, and was in this case.<br />
However, the other hive is in great shape and taking in loads of pollen. I have a pack of Ambrosia candy on the hive in case they run short of food in March.<br />
On 26 January - just over six weeks ago - I had a hip-replacement operation in the Nuffield Orthopaedic in Oxford. All went well, and I am now getting around with a stick - and a mercifully painless hip. I now have an associate beekeeper, John Heathcote, who lives in Milton-under-Wychwood, and he is looking after the bees at present. He kindly asked if he could help with the bees last year, and he has proved to have a real talent for it. He is an electrician - which means that he is careful, meticulous, and used to handling dangerous things - ideal qualifications for a beekeeper. He is also very observant and has cheered my convalescence with bulletins about the changing landscape. Out near Bruern Abbey a few weeks back e saw a wonderful sight - hundreds of goldfinches gathered in the trees, all giving voice. Apparently this phenomenon is called a "charm" of goldfinches.<br />
<br />John Careyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02443501280182565490noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4431882977702634832.post-47246804222678741132016-10-11T14:01:00.000-07:002016-10-11T14:01:25.821-07:00Bees and BooksIt has been a strange bee season. Wet weather in June and July kept the bees from foraging. In our area the farmers now sow oilseed rape early in September, so that it flowers in April or early May, which means that the bee colonies have not built up enough strength to take advantage of it. Consequence, low yield.<br />
I used MAQS against varroa early in the season and it worked well on a strong hive. But a weaker hive, later in the season, alarmed me because the queen stopped laying and I thought maybe she had not survived. It was too late to requeen, so I resigned myself to losing the colony. But last weekend I checked and there was lovely newly capped brood - a big regular slab of it. Much relief. I wonder if anyone else has found MAQS having this effect. I have misgivings about using it again.<br />
<br />
On the book front - I've thought for a while that it's a pity no one reads Milton's <i>Paradise Lost</i> nowadays - no one, that is, except academics. So I had the idea of shortening it - keeping just the very best and most powerful bits, and joining them up with a commentary explaining what happens in the omitted sections. It will be called <i>The Essential Paradise Lost</i> and Faber and Faber will publish it in the spring - March, I think. My shortened version is novella length - a bit shorter, on word count, than Orwell's <i>Animal Farm. </i>I'm hoping it will be good enough to lure readers back to the complete poem.<br />
<br />John Careyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02443501280182565490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4431882977702634832.post-73832811436221988952016-04-17T12:59:00.000-07:002016-04-17T12:59:38.384-07:00BeesIt was wonderfully sunny today (17th April) after a sharp frost last night. I went up to the hives at midday and found them all busily foraging. The colony bought from Paynes last year is particularly big and vigorous. Also very good tempered. i took the mouse-guards off each hive to give them free access. The fields around are full of oilseed rape, which must have been sown over a longish period, since some of them are in full flower and some just starting to show a glimmer of yellow here and there. i guess this means it will be a long honey season - provided the rain keeps off. The track up to my hives is flooded and has been for weeks. I have to wade to get through. It will be tricky getting full supers down unless things dry out. Fortunately the Cotswolds go from being flooded to being cracked and arid within a matter of days.John Careyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02443501280182565490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4431882977702634832.post-56199542584827337882015-11-01T14:23:00.000-08:002015-11-01T14:23:57.432-08:00BeesA joyous November 1st. Bright sun in Oxfordshire and very warm, and all three of my colonies were booming at midday - bees soaring out of the hives and returning loaded with pollen - a light orange colour, I don't know what it was from, maybe Michaelmas Daisies, but it was obviously a plentiful source and the bees couldn't get enough. Scrambling up through the entrance with their little loads, and tumbling over one another in their haste, they seemed gloriously happy. I've been feeding them syrup with half gallon contact feeders, which I have not used before. They are difficult to up-end without some spillage but I find if I do it over a plastic tray then any syrup that spills can be used again. The internet is full of beekeepers complaining that contact feeders are rubbish but they are fine once you get knack and because they hold a lot of syrup they save journeys to and from the apiary.John Careyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02443501280182565490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4431882977702634832.post-78375692237526884552015-07-14T08:52:00.000-07:002015-07-14T08:52:41.304-07:00Bees and BooksThe bee situation got worse but has now improved a bit. My one remaining hive swarmed, while I was not there, and when I looked at the brood chamber in early June there was no sign of a queen or any capped or uncapped brood. I thought that maybe they had an unmated queen, so I waited to see if any brood appeared. It didn't. So I sent off for a queen, who came by post, and I put her in the hive, hoping the bees would accept her. When I looked a couple of weeks later there were wonderful broad slabs of capped brood on five frames. I have been feeding them candy since then, as there does not seem to be much forage around.<br />
Last week I bought a 6-frame nucleus for my second hive from Roger Payne's Bees, which came by overnight delivery. They are now safely installed and are very beautiful, with golden stripes that glint in the sun. Also very gentle.<br />
I shall collect a nucleus for the third hive from Mr Jakeman in Staunton, Gloucestershire, on Saturday. So with luck I shall start next season with three colonies. The honey yield this season from my one operative hive was miserable - not much more than 40 lbs. Fortunately I have some boxes of last year's honey left<br />
In October I'll be at the Garden Museum Literary Festival at Hatfield House, talking about gardening in Eden in Milton's <i>Paradise Lost</i>. The Festival is on 3-4 October. Then on 11 November at 7.30 p.m. I'll be interviewing Claire Tomalin at the Richmond Literary Festival.John Careyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02443501280182565490noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4431882977702634832.post-79693800667037007142015-05-04T03:57:00.001-07:002015-05-04T03:57:26.300-07:00BeesI have put off writing this blog out of sheer despair. In my last I was hopeful the hive that had been attacked by mice had survived. But next time it was sunny enough to open it I found it had not. The mice had eaten virtually all the brood chamber - bees, brood, store, wax. Devastating. So now I have one active hive. It, however, is doing well - boomimg with bees and gathering honey. I checked yesterday and the top super is filling nicely. There are huge fields of oilseed rape in gorgeous full flower all around. What's more, the field next to my hives has been sown with field beans which are just coming through. So there should be a harvest from them in July. Thank you Corinne for your sympathy about mice. i share your opinion of them entirely.John Careyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02443501280182565490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4431882977702634832.post-47849810402603872562015-03-08T15:57:00.000-07:002015-03-08T15:57:10.212-07:00Bees and BooksIn the spring sunshine yesterday I went up to the hives and found the bees jubilantly coming and going. So at least they've survived the winter, and they really looked - and sounded - glad to be alive. None of them seemed to be taking pollen in, which was a bit surprising as there are a lot of crocuses out, but maybe they had decided to concentrate on something else. A bad moment was when I found that a mouse had climbed up under the roof of one hive and made a nest for itself by nibbling off the corner of a plastic quilt so that it could creep inside. I can't work out how it got in - the hive had a mouse guard on from early in September, and surely even a mouse can't squeeze through the mesh of a mesh floor. It's easy to think of mice as innocent little creatures, but the stink they make is disgusting, and I felt sorry for the bees for being forced to put up with it. Maybe what they can and can't smell is determined by some sort of filter which shuts out the really noxious stuff. I hope so.<br />
On Thursday (5 February) i was at the Bath Literary Festival talking about the joys of beekeeping in one of their "Bliss" lectures and in conversation with Sarah Le Fanu. There were quite a few beekeepers in the audience, so the question-and-answer session was fascinating - for me, anyway.John Careyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02443501280182565490noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4431882977702634832.post-84842395089380612582014-10-04T11:47:00.001-07:002014-10-04T11:54:13.842-07:00Book FestivalsTomorrow Sunday 5 October at 1.00 I'll be at the Wimbledon Book Festival talking to John Walsh about <i>The Unexpected Professor</i>. On Tuesday 7 October at 2.30 I'll be at the Cheltenham Festival talking to Peter Kemp; on Sunday 12 October at 2.30 at the Durham Festival talking to Peter Guttridge; on Monday 13 October at the Ilkley Festival - I'm not sure who the interviewer will be - and on Saturday 18 October at 5.30 at the Thame Festival talking to Beaty Rubens.John Careyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02443501280182565490noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4431882977702634832.post-38112958180029861282014-08-12T10:56:00.000-07:002014-08-12T10:56:01.075-07:00Bees and BooksThe bee situation has improved a bit. After the oilseed rape went out of flower there was a late harvest - partly from field beans, I think, and partly from blackberry flowers which, with the hot sun in July, spread over the hedgerows in their millions. I ended up with about 150 lbs of honey - still a lot less than usual but quite enough for what I need. I've got two more outlets selling my honey, the garage at Shipton-under-Wychwood and Applegarth Garden Centre in Chipping Norton (in addition to Trevor Beadle the Chipping Norton butcher). On Saturday 16 August at 1.30 I'll be discussing <i>The Unexpected Professor</i> with Steven Gale in the Baillie Gifford Main Theatre at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in Charlotte Square.John Careyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02443501280182565490noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4431882977702634832.post-83401701152232829042014-05-28T13:55:00.000-07:002014-05-28T13:55:54.863-07:00Bees and booksIt has not been a good honey year for me - so far. The weather was the main problem. The oilseed rape came into flower ridiculously early - in April - before the bees were ready for it. Then there were too many days of rain and wind. Also the honey seemed to set solid in the frames unusually quickly - perhaps because of dips in temperature - so I found myself trying to extract solid, crystallised goo. Very disappointing. Harvest so far is 60lbs which is very poor for three hives. The bees seem OK, though, and will have plenty stored away for the winter. My loss is their gain. The new mesh floors seem to have worked well and I notice the bees have taken to going in from the back as well as the front. Some creature - badger? fox? crow? - pulled the mesh floors right out several times. Can't think why, because whatever it was did not get at the brood chambers. I've driven a stake in immediately behind each hive, which has stopped it.<br />
<br />
Book festivals continue. Last Wednesday, 21 May, I was in Dublin for the Writers' Festival in conversation with Selina Guinness. On Friday 30 May I shall be at Hay-on-Wye, on Wednesday 4 June at Salisbury Arts Centre, on Saturday 7 June at the Dovedale Festival, in conversation with Lucy Hughes-Hallett, and on Tuesday 17 June at The Writers Centre Norwich, talking to D.J. Taylor.John Careyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02443501280182565490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4431882977702634832.post-45920618119124499432014-05-11T12:31:00.000-07:002014-05-11T12:31:07.583-07:00Book FestivalsLast Wednesday, 7 May, I was with Matt Holland at the Swindon Literary Festival, talking about <i>The Unexpected Professor</i> - a really marvellous evening and a lovely audience. On Tuesday, 13 May, at 1815 I'll be in conversation with Sarah Le Fanu at the Bristol Festival of Ideas, then on Saturday 17 May at 1615 I'll be at the University of Warwick Book Festival. Glad to say that the book is selling well - it has twice been in the Sunday Times non-fiction bestseller list and Fabers have already done a reprint of the hardback.John Careyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02443501280182565490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4431882977702634832.post-51880729716776927042014-04-03T10:31:00.001-07:002014-04-03T10:36:11.136-07:00BooksTomorrow, 4 April, I shall be talking about <i>The Unexpected Professor </i>at the Cambridge Literary Festival. It'll be in the Union Chamber at 4.00 and the interviewer will be Michael Prodger of the <i>New Statesman.</i>John Careyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02443501280182565490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4431882977702634832.post-547013334775465332014-03-23T09:48:00.000-07:002014-03-23T09:48:50.583-07:00Creaming HoneyThis is a blog of interest only to beekeepers. For a long time I have been worried about the quality of the honey I've been marketing. Its source is mainly oilseed rape, which is not something I can alter as we are surrounded by fields of it. On extracting I store it in plastic boxes and when the time comes to put it into jars for sale I heat it to 71 degrees centigrade and cool it as rapidly as I can and then mix into it 10 to 15 percent of honey from the last batch. This is called "seeding" and is supposed to ensure a smooth set. But it doesn't. The honey sets rock hard and is very granular to the palate. Alerted by a stern article in Beecraft and some searching on the web I bought a warming cabinet. You can get these from Thornes but mine was made by a beekeeper in Enstone, Mr Perrin, who is also a cabinet maker. An electrician friend fitted it up with a thermostat. Setting the thermostat at 40-50 degrees centigrade allows the solid honey to be melted much more slowly. It takes about 15 hours. But the slow melting means the honey does not set so hard. I also bought a pestle and mortar and ground up three pounds of honey. I did it about a dessertspoonful at a time and ground it until it was just a sticky jelly. Then I added the three jars (3lbs) to the 25lbs of honey I had melted. To mix them together I bought a corkscrew mixer from Thornes which fits into an electric drill and works very quickly. Then I put it into jars. It has set soft enough to scrape with a spoon or knife and is beautifully smooth with no trace of granularity on the tongue. So I'll use this method in future unless anyone can suggest improvements. The warming cabinet is heated by just two 40 or 60 watt light bulbs so does not use much electricity.John Careyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02443501280182565490noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4431882977702634832.post-52586629883875350322014-03-23T07:06:00.001-07:002014-03-23T07:06:09.543-07:00Book EventsMy event with Peter Kemp at the Oxford Literary Festival yesterday (Saturday 22 March) was hugely enjoyable - full house, lovely audience, Peter, as usual, a matchless Master of Ceremonies. On Wednesday evening (26 March) I'll be at Alleyn's School for another Q&A about The Unexpected Professor.John Careyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02443501280182565490noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4431882977702634832.post-73982033028896821372014-03-11T03:24:00.000-07:002014-03-11T03:24:06.476-07:00Bees and BooksNext Friday 14 March I'll be in Keswick for the Words by the Water Festival to talk about my new book The Unexpected Professor which Faber and Faber are publishing on 20 March. It'll be my first time in Keswick and I'm looking forward to it greatly. The book got an enthusiastic review in Saturday's Telegraph by Rupert Christiansen and a slightly sniffy one by Stefan Collini in the Guardian the week before. Bryan Appleyard wrote a profile about me and it in the Sunday Times last week.<br />
The sun shone last weekend and the bees really came alive. They were pouring out of the hives on Sunday and scrambling back in with their pollen sacs crammed with yellow and orange pollen - from crocuses i think and maybe late snowdrops and early flowering shrubs like the Japanese honeysuckle which is full of flower just now in our cottage garden. Good to know all three hives have survived the winter.<br />
Talking of gardening I've just finished reviewing for the Sunday Times a book from Yale University Press called The Gardens of the British Working Class by Margaret Willes. Really wonderful.John Careyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02443501280182565490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4431882977702634832.post-42494290623880186242014-02-10T08:43:00.001-08:002014-02-10T08:47:57.340-08:00New Book - and BeesOn 20 March Faber and Faber will be publishing my new book The Unexpected Professor. It's subtitled An Oxford Life in Books and it's partly a memoir and partly a personal account of what books and reading have meant to me. During the spring and summer I'll be talking about it at various literary festivals, starting on Saturday 22 March at 10.00 at the Oxford Literary Festival when I'll be in dialogue with Peter Kemp. I'll post later events on this blog.<br />
The bees are pretty quiet and, I imagine, enjoying the mild weather. A few of them were flying on a sunny day a couple of weeks ago. Fortunately the hives are on a hill and protected from wind by woodland, but the bottom of the field on the way up to them is under water. I'm experimenting with getting my set honey less granular. If anyone has any useful hints I'd be grateful.John Careyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02443501280182565490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4431882977702634832.post-51758903464227058412013-11-18T11:39:00.001-08:002013-11-18T11:39:54.913-08:00Book EventOn Thursday 23 November at 7.00 I'll be talking about John Donne at the National Portrait Gallery - it's an event organized by the Royal Society of Literature and the National Portrait Gallery in co-operation and I'll be planning the talk around the Lothian portrait of Donne which is in the Gallery's collection. Young actors from the Royal School of Speech and Drama will read extracts from Donne's poetry and prose.John Careyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02443501280182565490noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4431882977702634832.post-81618662405204788372013-10-01T03:57:00.000-07:002013-10-01T03:57:03.849-07:00Bees and BooksThe bees are now ready for the winter, with plenty of store and strong colonies. A DEFRA inspector on the lookout for European Foul Brood came and went through the hives last week and gave them a clean bill of health, which was a relief. Our total honey harvest for the year was 275 lbs - this was from just two hives as the third began as a nucleus early in the season and has been building up its strength during the summer. I'd say this was the best season we've ever had.<br />
On Sunday 6 October at 4.00 I'll be discussing British writing 1945-1960 with Jude Kelly in the Purcell Room at the Queen Elizabeth Hall as part of the Southbank's The Rest Is Noise festival.John Careyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02443501280182565490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4431882977702634832.post-15066717725636417232013-07-19T02:56:00.000-07:002013-07-19T02:56:02.936-07:00BeesAfter a late start it has been a wonderful year for bees. We have harvested 235 lbs from our two hives. The third hive has a nucleus bought a few weeks back from Mr Jakeman at Ledbury which is doing very nicely, drawing out the foundation on the four outside frames to make beautiful lacy white comb. Because last autumn was so waterlogged the germination of autumn sown rape was poor and Mr Izod, our local farmer, ploughed in the fields of rape in the spring and resowed them They came into flower at the end of June and have just gone out of flower, prolonging the usual season by several weeks, much to the bees' delight. <br />
A couple of weeks ago I used, for the first time, the new anti-varroa treatment, MAQS, on the hive which has a mesh floor (which is necessary for MAQS because it gives added ventilation). It did not have any of the alarming effects some users have reported on the internet. My only worry is that the two little packs of formic acid looked much the same, at the end of the 7 day application period, as when I put them on. I had imagined they would turn to vapour and disappear. I'd be interested if anyone else has experience with MAQS. Blackberries are now in flower and the bees are on those. But I don't imagine there is much nectar flowing, because of the drought.John Careyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02443501280182565490noreply@blogger.com0