Capped Queen Cell

I checked my bees yesterday. There is one capped queen cell in the hive that I removed the queen from.

This queen cell is due to hatch out at about now, I am slightly worried that it might have chilled, due to me moving the location of the hives and therefore reducing the amount of bees in this hive. I guess I will know in the next day or two.

I give them another frame from another. This frame seen below is partially drawn with capped brood and eggs laid around the outside. The wax will be nice and soft for them to draw out more queen cells if needs be.

 

All hives are eagerly drawing out the foundation-less frames producing a lovely clean comb. I have to learn to be careful with these as I flipped over one and the soft comb fall from the frame. I must learn! Gently does it until they have drawn it fully and attached it to all sides.

The hive that holds the old queen is doing very well and is working a full hive, I will need to add another box soon for them. I might remove this queen next month as the hive builds up to produce more splits.

Comings and goings...

I have two new young horses arriving this weekend. They are very well bred warm-bloods full brothers, a yearling and a two year old.

I sold my aged competition horse and I am working on the children's 128cm jumping pony. I am schooling him myself and will be bringing him to shows shortly to put SJI points on him. He will be ridden by a child at the shows.

The plan is to bring him on for our children to compete him at newcomers next year.

The gardens are awash with beautiful colours. The fruit trees are swelling with fruit and young potato plants push through the soil. The rhubarb needs harvesting and the chickens are still free to scratch out the vegetable beds unfortunately. They just keep escaping!!

The pigs are massive and enjoying the extra space of the cow yard. They have redecorated using the hose pipe and pallets ;-)

They are due to go to the freezer in ten days.

The bees are flying well every day and are bringing back plenty of pollen. I should have a virgin queen around now, from the hive that I removed the queen from. It is great mating flight weather and the other hives had plenty of capped drone cells last week.

Fingers crossed that she mates well and avoids the recently arrived swallows!

Homemade butter

I had a litre of heavy cream in the fridge that was at risk of souring before I would manage to use it.

It was the perfect reason to make butter!

According to Weston A. Price, butter made from the cream of grass feed cows grazing on rapidly growing spring grass had what he called ' activator X '. 

It seemed a shame to waste it, so I went about making butter.

I took the cream out of the fridge in the morning, with the intention of making butter in the evening. Cream breaks into butter and buttermilk quicker when it is at room temperature.

I poured the cream into a bowl and used a handheld electric whisk. It only took a few minutes when I heard the noise of the butter coming. It sounds like a wet splash when the cream collapses in and splits.

I emptied the contents of the bowl into a large sieve, sitting over a small bowl to collect the buttermilk and put them back into the fridge. It is easier to wash the butter when it is chilled and has had the night to drain. So I headed to bed!

In the morning, I put the butter into a pot of painfully cold water. I used my hand to press out the buttermilk. I repeatedly replaced the cold water as it became cloudy. When the water remained clear, the butter was ready to be salted and pressed into ramekins. 

This involves mixing in good quality sea salt to taste and them pressing into moulds or containers ready to be used or in this case, stored in the freezer.

This litre of cream produced 400g of butter.

The buttermilk can be used in cooking, it is especially good in brown soda bread or pancakes. 

I really should be making this amount of butter twice a day, but I never have the time! 

And the pigs love the cream ;-)