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00:05
Welcome back to a Beekeepers Diary podcast. The sound might be a little different this week because I'm sitting in my car  just near the bees because it's tipping down with rain  and the gardener for the land where I keep the bees is in and he's got the leaf blower going so it's a bit noisy. So I'm just out on the street.

00:33
You'll probably be able to hear some traffic going by.

00:38
from the locals.  There's a horse and cart coming past me, that's some unexpected noise, let's enjoy that.

00:50
There's a procession. What timing. Oh one's trotting beautifully.  High knees, keep it going, high knees.

01:03
Oh,  one more.  What a little pony this one. They're  single.  They can probably carry one or two people trotting.

01:14
Two people on a carriage on the back, silently being drawn behind them. That was nice. That was unexpected. So yeah, quick visit to the bees today. Obviously I'm not going to open them right now. Nothing to be gained. I've felt the weight. I've hefted. We all know that word now. I've hefted the hive and it's hefting pretty heavily. I've looked.

01:42
into the feeder. Everything that I put in last week, all five kilos  has gone. It's bone dry there. So I've added another five kilos. So I think I'm up to  15, 16 kilos. That'll probably do us for now. And it's  as it's starting to get colder, there'll probably be less inclined to take it down as well. em So that's good. Yeah. There should be in good shape food wise and there's

02:10
very distinctive smell from the hive that beekeepers will recognise is the smell of ivy.  So they've obviously found a nectar flow on one of the last crops of the season, which is ivy, which  sets solid in the comb, but  they seem to like going for it, keeps them happy.  So yeah,  that's, good another  smell, another sense to be stimulated by beekeeping.

02:40
As well as the sound and the sights, the smells of the hive can be tantalising through the season.  And the smell of a beehive in the summer is something I miss during the winter. The smell of propolis and wax and honey and...

03:00
Just that bee smell  that we all like. Yeah, so that's all good. I've checked the front of the hive and they've been chewing further around the entrance block that I put in. So there's quite a gap along the top there. I couldn't see any wasps,  but I've, for worry of wasp attack, I've cut some foam and wedged it in the gap they've made and I'll have to make do.

03:27
over the winter because I'm not going to crack the hive open now and come the spring when I take that box off I shall repair it and make it good as new. But yeah they've had a good old chew there so they can come  they can approach the  uh I'm just sitting by some ivy I can see a wasp  foraging on the ivy itself.  Yeah they can get they can sort of climb over the entrance block and walk through the gap they've made so

03:57
The  gap I've given them is wide enough, I'm sure, this time of year, and I've filled it with foam, sort of a wasps, from getting in. So that's good. There was a green woodpecker shouting its head off as I was tending to the bees in the rain.

04:15
I did the majority of it without a bee suit on as no one was flying but once I started putting the phone back in the entrance block I put my suit on just in case because I'm dressed all in black and I thought I might look like a giant bear attacking them.  So I didn't want to get stung in my face.  So I put my suit on just for that bit. Here the jackdaws going over.

04:41
Sounds of wildlife, lovely.

04:51
thought could briefly hear a skylark but I can't quite hear it, I'm imagining it I think  in my romantic brain. Well there we are, it's another week knocked off. Probably I'm not going to be around next week but I shall be back to check in in a fortnight. Hope you have a lovely week  and speak to you next time.