Episode 10: Wet bees, falling leaves and birds in the trees.

[00:00:04] Welcome back to the Beekeepers Diary. I'd like to welcome all my new listeners. I've had quite an upturn recently so it's very nice to have everyone listening in each week. I very much appreciate it.

[00:00:18] And I've been looking at the countries that people are listening from and looking at my website from. It's unbelievable.

[00:00:27] So yeah, it's good to know that my little voice is reaching out into the world like that. It's very flattering.

[00:00:35] So thank you if you're listening. It's much appreciated. Maybe drop a comment on my Spotify comments. Let me know where you're listening from.

[00:00:43] That would be fun to see. I'd appreciate it. Thank you.

[00:00:49] It's a very wet, autumnal... Where are we? About the 20th of October, I think.

[00:00:56] Leaves are falling from the trees as I speak. Looking out over the dewy field. The jackdaws calling overhead.

[00:01:08] It's sort of strangely pleasant really. A nice cool temperature.

[00:01:14] Looking out at the bees. I've just done another top up of the feed. Not much to report there.

[00:01:19] They're consistently taking down the thick syrup that I'm giving them.

[00:01:23] So that's good. So I've done another... They've had another 3 kilograms each.

[00:01:28] So they probably had about 18-ish, plus what they already had.

[00:01:33] So I always try and leave them 20 kilos of stores for my size colonies over winter,

[00:01:39] which is normally more than enough. So I'm probably about there.

[00:01:42] I think it will be warm enough next week for them to be able to take it down.

[00:01:47] You can hear long-tailed tits in the trees above me.

[00:01:53] It's nice to hear a nice family group moving through.

[00:01:58] Probably hear the M25 in the background as well as our constant companion at this location.

[00:02:06] As far as what else we're doing at this time of year, I've just reduced the entrances to the beehive even smaller.

[00:02:14] Literally to about the space that one bee can pass through.

[00:02:17] I noticed the wasp was getting into hive too.

[00:02:20] Can you hear that? It's a long-tailed tits have flown into the tree above my head.

[00:02:27] Lovely.

[00:02:28] So I've reduced it down to one bee space to make it easier for them to defend against the wasps.

[00:02:36] And hopefully that will slow them down.

[00:02:37] There's a few wet straggly bees on the entrance blocks, on the entrance boards, landing boards, whatever you call them.

[00:02:46] They arrive a bit too soggy and often can't make their way in.

[00:02:50] I've ushered one or two in, being the soft-soul that I am.

[00:02:54] I've done my best.

[00:02:57] And also people at this time of year consider mouse guards.

[00:03:01] They look a bit like a cheese grater that you put across the entrance to stop mice from entering the hive and making a nest in a nice warm container.

[00:03:10] Which they're prone to do at this time of year.

[00:03:12] But the type of entrances I have, they can't do that.

[00:03:17] So I'm good, the blocks I've got do that as well as being adjustable to stop the wasps from getting in.

[00:03:25] So I've got that base covered at the moment.

[00:03:29] That's about it for the moment.

[00:03:31] Bee wise, nature wise this week.

[00:03:34] I've had a few nice hearings and sightings.

[00:03:37] My local, there's an overpass of my local river.

[00:03:40] I've had some lovely kingfisher sightings there.

[00:03:43] And in the same location, Chetty's Warbler singing very loudly.

[00:03:48] That was lovely to hear.

[00:03:50] I managed to catch that on a bit of video as it goes.

[00:03:54] I might post that on my Beekeepers Diary Instagram feed maybe.

[00:04:01] Which you can also find from a QR code on my website, beekeepersdiarypodcast.com

[00:04:09] So you can look me up there and you'll see all the links to all the episodes and the Instagram account that I have there.

[00:04:16] And then links to wherever you might like to listen to this on other platforms.

[00:04:21] I think it also uploads to YouTube as well so you can get it on the move.

[00:04:27] Just a quick update really this week.

[00:04:32] Thanks for listening.

[00:04:34] And I may be back in further weeks with more to report.

[00:04:38] Who knows, we'll see how it goes.

[00:04:40] No promises.

[00:04:41] Catch you later.