Calamity at the hive tells the story. 

This weekend we went to visit another site where a further hive stands. This time our work was more positive and involved a visit from the local police too. 

Police surveillance 

As we drew up in the carpark, our camper van was obviously a bit eye catching so the local patrol drew in behind us. After a brief friendly chat we asked him if he’d like to see the hive. 

We were bringing two extra honey boxes to give them more space. They had a productive season last year with about twelve kilos of honey. 

The local policeman, Paul, was intrigued. We showed him the very peaceful bees. They’re bringing pollen in which is a good sign. It means they’ll be feeding this protein source to the new brood of young bees. 

He enjoyed the taste of a small piece of comb from the hive too. 

With the extra space the hive should continue expanding for a few more weeks.

Another story

On the flip side the two empty hives attracted some attention today. 

Bees have been seen flying in and out. So we went to visit today. 

Between rain showers, we checked the hive. Sadly although there are bees visiting they are taking traces of honey. There’s no new occupants. 

The frames are quiet and there’s no hum of activity. 

We removed an empty honey box and shut the entrance to prevent more visitors. 

Hopefully we may have a swarm soon to replace the lost colonies. 

https://learningtechnologylizard.wordpress.com/2017/04/26/blogging-why/
It’s about this blog so I want to share it here too. 

When I blogged every day for a year I really benefitted from theexperience.

At the time I confess I thought it was rather odd that the process of making a simple object that is so easy to buy could inspire so much passion. 

Spoons? What’s the big deal. 

In October last year I did a Forest Schools course. During that week we learned how to use hand tools to make simple objects. 

At the end of the week, while learning about the tool maintenance we were told that a spoon knife existed for making spoons. 

After a couple of days, I was given a spoon knife. 

Time passed. I watched some online tutorials. Some of the skills I needed had been included in the course. A fortnight ago it was assessment week. During that week I was given a piece of wood.

It has spoon written right through it. 

I didn’t take a picture while it had bark on it. 

This week I picked up the piece of wood again. I worked on it. I used my spoon knife. 

It gradually evolved. 

I used a sheath knife, a spoon knife and another spoon night. 

I smoothed it with sand paper. 

To this point. 

It’s a spoon. 

And now I understand why someone could be so passionate about this simple wooden object. 

Making a spoon is a great thing. I now need another piece of wood……

The loss of a hive is no longer unusual. 

When a colony perishes it is a sad day. Any sensible bee keeper is likely to reflect on the event. 

Did the bees have enough food?

Was the winter particularly harsh?

Has there been a chemical event in the locality?

Where the bees contented at the end of the previous summer season?

Do others report similar problems? 

The bees in both our hives on one site have perished. There were no bees flying out and in this week as the warmer weather started. 

On closer inspection of the hives, both had sufficient honey stores too. They were also fed extra in the autumn. 

The honey boxes were heavy with golden food. 

Sometimes bees cluster in their winter clump too far from their food. This can be just bad planning on their part. 

There was no scent of disease in each hive either. So the mystery remains. Sadly in recent years colony collapse figures are rising. There have been a few years when a third of the bees in the U.K. and in The Netherlands we’re lost each season. 

It is possible that they reduced their numbers too much with secondary swarming as there are queen cells  in one hive but it’s still not clear what may have happened. 

A few weeks ago when we checked the hive the bees were okay. 

It is possible that the fluctuating temperatures in recent weeks stressed the bees and took them by surprise. Climate change has definately added to their challenge. A colony becomes more active with warmer weather and may move closer to the entrance in the hive. A sudden cold snap can catch them unawares. 

So what happens next?

The bee site has been successful for three years. In each season the first colony swarmed and had a very healthy population so the location is likely to provide plenty of nectar and pollen for a new beginning. 

First we need to clean out the hives and disinfect them. The honey will be harvested as there is no likely connection between the bee death and their food supply. 

Ideally we will relocate another hive if we have one with a strong colony. Then in a few weeks time when swarming season starts we can hope to home a swarm in the second  hive. 

What can you do to help bees?

• Think about spring flowers that you can grow in you garden or on the balcony
• Avoid insecticide and garden chemicals, as a small pack of ant powder can kill all the bees in The Netherlands 
• Find out more about bees
• Build a wild bee nest box in your garden
• Support local bee keepers by using local honey

Time has passed and the fire is now a regular feature. 

Bring on the rebate. 

I’ve experimented with a number of fuels. 

New wood

We are now on a foraging exercise. In The Netherlands the tradition of ‘New and Old’ or New Year’s Eve also includes fire making. It’s not a glamorous or sophisticated affair. Generally the torching of any abandoned Christmas tree will suffice. 

This can lead to melted holes in the tarmac but fortunately most roads are paved. Hopefully we’ll get lucky. 

So to Forage

The plan is to collect a few orphaned fir trees so we can burn them in a more purposeful manner. 

Fire starters

It seems that both egg boxes and dried orange peel are very useful in the purpose. Colleagues are also a grand source of tinder from their tumble driers. (Is it wrong to be pleased that in requesting this material, i might be preventing a potential house fire?)

In addition I’ve learned that not only is belly button fluff all blue but so is the stuff from the dryer. Curious fact. I have many samples with which to prove it.  

I’ve been busy making firefighters the way I was taught as a child. 

Micah 

The wood stove we have had transparent panels in the front. They’re not windows I hasten to add, but made of Micah, a fine transparent material that has thin layers like slate. It resists high temperatures. It’s good to find a source before one breaks. Looking after the fire itself is necessary. 

No smoke without…. ash

In so many self sufficiently situations it’s suggested that a circle is formed. Permaculture teaches us that too. The concept being that if you create something, a habit or a resource, it should have a closed loop. Fires create a good situation to explore this. 

We’ve used foraged supplies for the fire and used the fire to convert waste into energy. In turn the fire creates a byproduct of ash. 

Ashes to Ashes

So the ash needs a purpose. Ideally meeting a need we already have. So far we’ve used it on the allotment.  It can be a treatment for the allium family to prevent onion moths. It’s also good for treating the hen house. Ash helps to prevent mites and bugs in the bedding. I’m looking for other uses now as we are producing more ash than we did. 

Apparently we can use it to create the base ingredients for soap so that could be another route. 

Do you have good uses for wood ash?

How do you use it and store it? 

Rather than doing this as a public  nuisance, I’ve been practicing with our wood burning stove. 

The stove is a French model that we bought from a renovator a few years back.  It’s very compact because the living space is quite small but it’s a great way to boost the heating in the house. 

Tinder

I wanted to find a good way to start a fire With a spark. The fluff and lint from tumble dryers is a great way to do this rather than using cotton wool. As we don’t have a tumble dryer for environmental reasons I decided to see if anyone I knew had the fluff for me. I’m a recycling nut so it’s a good thing. 

The contributions are rolling in so far. 

Orange Peel

Another useful fire starter is dried orange peel. It’s prolifically available at school lunchtime and the oil in it is a good excellerant. 

Kindling 

Pine Cones

These great seed holders are a fabulous source of kindling. The local pine trees were very obliging. 

It’s been really enlightening finding natural and recycled resources. I’ve also been developing skills. My mum taught me how to make newspaper firelighters when I was a child. 

It’s a simple process of folding 2 sheets of newspaper into 2 narrow strips. These are then concertina-ed into a compact corkscrew by folding them across each other. 

Paper pulp Briquettes

We also use paper briquettes to fuel the fire. We make them with a press and recycle our household paper. 

Fire Structure

In the wood stove I create a waffle fire formation. I do this by placing two slim pieces of wood along the sides of the fire. 

These run alongside some crumpled paper and a newspaper firefighter. I top them with some pices of kindling wood across the two supporting pieces. 

These support a larger piece of firewood. 

I light the newspaper at the bottom. This creates enough flame to trigger the kindling. This in turn creates enough heat and fire for the larger wood to catch. Et voila! 

Do you have any unusual ways of lighting or sustaining fires? 

When we first got it there were three hens. Some hens didn’t stay long and one is now onto her fifth year. Of course I don’t have a photo of the before.

Hens have addictive qualities. This leads to multiplication. Three has become seven. 

Their home has had a few temporary mr fixit style additions to allow for this but we’ve long had the ambition to create a palace that is more effective. 

This process has now taken place. 

Originally the extention we added consisted of an extension in the back and off into a perpendicular further run. 

In order to improve things we wanted to turn this extra run into a tunnel under our pot plants alongside the main hen house instead off off to the left. 

Meanwhile rather than the make-shift expansion to join the two, we wanted to raise the whole old hen house and add another level. This would give them two extra platforms. 

We had a couple of other aims to avoid additional costs and to recycle existing resources. 

So this is what we did. 

The resident carpenter -come -genius, spent €28.00 on wood ($25). Then using screws we had and ingenuity he created this. 

We wanted to avoid more expensive longer wood prices so he joined two pieces to make each length. 

Then he added the plank you can see so that we can clean out more easily. That has some hinges. 

Next steps

We moved the old hen house out of the way. Then we added a raised brick base. Our yard can get damp so we want the hens to be above the original ground level. We already did this in the main house. The bricks came from a friends neighbour.

We positioned the old house on top of the new section and lined up one end. The green plastic was where the floor line used to be. 

We fenced in with chicken wire salvaged from a skip for free. 

The roof to the left on the new section is old wood we already had. 

We added the platforms over the new raised lower areas. 

Meanwhile

While the frame base was being constructed I worked on the relocation of the extension cage. 

After moving the plants, I bricked the base repaired the run and added a roof and a tarp as a cover. 

The plants were replaced. 

This section is now sharing the space it occupies with the plants. A couple of which had to be reported as the terra cotta pots were too heavy for the frame. 

The pits in front will be sown with chicken treat plants in spring. 

Connecting

The main house and the extention now needed a connecting section.  

The challenge was to find a way to join the two area behind our water butt. This section isn’t very accessible. But the water butt is in an unavoidable spot. 

We debated solutions 

Making a chicken wireframe might work or might be hard to fit. A tube or pipe solution seemed most appropriate. In the shed there were two empty white 20 litre canisters. We took off the top and bottom or each with a jig saw and then riveted them together. 

We added drainage holes in the bottom. 

We snipped a hole in each section of the run parallel with each other. Then used cable ties to attach them securely.

We needed to add ramps inside the main house to enable the hens to access the high elements. 

These were made of scrap wood. 

The hens have needed to learn where their door went and how to use tunnel but they are doing well. 

Taking picture of it is even harder!

They can access their water bottles inside and out now. They get access to the whole yard when we are at home.

Have you built solutions to challenges you face with your hens or other projects?

What problems did you overcome?

I shared this post because I want to share this video more widely for a good cause. Please do the same if you agree. Thanks 

Technology is often implicated in discussions about creativity in a way that implies that tech isn’t. I’m not sure why that is. So often tech can be such an incredible platform to aid a creative process. And that’s where The Beatles came in recently. The challenge: raise awareness and some money. The focus: Save the […]

via Digital Collaboration with The Beatles — Learning Technology Lizard’s Blog

After making some cordial from dried flower the other day we collected a huge amount and dried it. 

We were very careful not to take to much from any one plant but we gathered a large bag full by choosing a few heads from each of several large bushes. Each plant still had masses of flowers. 

Then I dried them in three batches in our dehydrator. 

Elderflower Champagne

Meanwhile we decided to explore elderflower champagne. Last year we spent a day foraging with the Galloway Forager and his recipe caught my eye. It looked short and simple. He’s the best place to go for foraged ideas and knowledge. 

We’ve made the rash decision to start it in a demijohn rather than a brewing bucket which will make straining it a challenge but so far so good after three days it’s looking good. 

We haven’t go news on what it is like yet but will attempt to lead you know in a few weeks. 

Plus the next stage of the process will be interesting. 

It all can hang on completing things too. Making sure your goal is finished. Have you started the book? Have you finished it. 

When I started being greener I had a few general goals; grow my own,use less stuff, be more local and be more sustainable. 

But I also had specific goals. In the garden I wanted to grow courgette flowers as they were delicious but not easy to actually get unless you grew them. 

I recently started being a forager. My foraging goal was to eat elderflower tempura. Another thing that isn’t easy to get hold of unless you do it yourself. 

The first challenge is finding the flowers. The second challenge is having a great walk to go and get them! Both conditions were available.

This happened today!

And I had to create a recipe for it. The recipes I found said use fizzy water. I didn’t have any. Having picked the flower heads, I was loathe to go looking for some. Then I read that a beer batter could be used. Now I wanted the recipe to be gluten free so decided to use cider instead. Fizzy! Yes!

Ingredients

• 100g cornflour
• 100ml cider (roughly)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 smallish egg
• Elderflowers (I did five)

Method 

1. Sieve the flour. I always sieve flour. Add the baking powder, make a well in the middle, and then drop the egg in the well. 

2. Using a fork , gently start mixing the egg in. As it gets thicker add some cider. Just a slosh! Add a bit more gradually so that the batter starts to form. Corn flour can be quite dense so watch out for lumps. Add more cider until it’s smooth and quite thin. Give it a whisk or flip with the fork. 

Dip the flower head petals in the batter. Give it a few moments to drop so it’s not too heavily coated. 

Heat a couple of cms of oil in a wide pan. When it’s hot enough to get a cube of bread. Fry two or three flowers at a time. 

Apparently it’s good to serve them with elderflower syrup but we didn’t have any handy so icing sugar had to do the trick. 

This batter would cover a lot more flowers but we didn’t need loads. Probably about 20 heads. 

It was delicious! 

What goals have you had on your Eco journey? Did you manage to achieve them?