We have had a mix of weather so far this summer, with some heat but also lots of wind. Despite this, we have had some good growth – particularly our grapes that were planted around the ‘duckagon‘. They have really bushed up and now form a fabulous shady pen for the ducks, and there are lots of bunches of grapes too!

The bees seem to have finally settled….. at least one hive anyway. After some extensive bee dramas, which involved completely emptying each hive some distance away and then setting it up again and letting the worker bees fly back, we installed a nuc into each, complete with a queen and brood. Hive 1 is certainly on its way, with the new queen visible and laying well. Hive 2….still not sure, but the boost from the nuc has helped but there was no evidence of a laying queen, so we have put a new one in yet again! Fingers crossed.

As we usually do in summer, we have incubated some quail eggs and now have 10 very cute quail chicks. They are so tiny when they hatch, but grow and grow at a great rate! These little ones were hinting that it was time to come out of the incubator and into the brooder with some food!