Changing climate affecting beekeeping

This year we are experiencing yet another change in weather patterns. We have had almost no frost and a season which has started 4 weeks earlier than average and is perhaps 7weeks ahead of last year. Colonies have been swarming in higher numbers and earlier than I have ever known in 30 years of keeping bees. When I lived in the South of England 20 years ago we were always surprised to see a swarm in April yet this years 200 miles north I have 70% of my colonies making preparations to swarm.

The lesson seems to be that we have to ready for any eventuality and that past experience doesn't necessarily give us any clues to future patterns. We wait and see what the rest of the season brings.

Another first for me, I was working hives in Herefordshire and I moved an empty hive with its floor went back to pick up more equipment and came across this

Its I think a smooth snake non verminous but that didn't stop him doing the full Cobra act as I got near, luckily he hung around long enough for me grab my phone and take the picture.

Woolly Bears, Dog and House Martins

 We are renewing some of our hen equipment with two new houses and new feeders, There are a plethora of feeders on the market, we have bought one of these Emperor feeders which so far seem robust and despite having constantly open feeders they seem to produce very little waste. Another advantage is that the feed constantly visible the chickens are more interested and take in more feed.

 The Tomatoes are out of the tunnels now ready for planting Spinach, Spring green and Salads.

 While clearing the tunnel we noticed an infestation of these woolly bear caterpillars they have been around for a couple of years in the tunnels but only this year have they been causing appreciable damage. They seen to live off anything from Nettles, Tomatoes to brassica and Nasturtium. We picked up these above from about 1m2 after the Tomatoes were removed. I have no idea what species they are but do know they develop into a small moth with red wings.

 Tomatoes picked for ripening in the greenhouse before sale on the market.

 Following the loss of my dog Millie we have bought an older trained dog to do the work. This picture is when she first arrived looking very nervous. She is much brighter now and is working sheep well. More on her later.

An image from August of the House Martins getting ready for their trip to Africa. in years gone by there would have been ten times this number but we have seen a steady decline over the past ten years. I fear the time is not long away when there may be none at all arriving in spring.

New arthropod

Her is the latest in the unusual insects found in Hopesay. This one is a Pseudoscorpion, not the actual one nor I suspect the same species but pretty similar. Ours was about 3mm long and very active bombing up and down Adams'  arm with those little pincers going ten to the dozen.

The previous mystery arthropod was a snake fly, never seen by me before bur apparantly not that unusual.

What is it?

 An insect found in Hopesay, not seen this one before, it can articulate its neck and seems to have a large ovipositor. Click on the image to see the detail more clearly.

Last vestiges of summer

Taken before the last heavy frost, these Asters are providing a late season forage supply for our local Butterflies.
The warmth of the summer season dictates the range of species we have here we can see Red Admiral, Comma and Tortoiseshell.

We have a Duck

Our neighbors "kindly" brought a duckling round that their young dog had in its mouth. I think we must be seen seen as some kind of Dr Doolittle characters. Well it was obviously only a day or two old, its parent I think was taken by the fox that killed our chickens. They love Duck. So we took it assuming that it had been so stressed and chilled that it wouldn't survive the night. We put it under a broody hen, not expecting the duck to imprint on the hen.
Well here we are 3 days later and it is alive and well and thinks the hen is its Mum and the hen seems quite happy with her new charge.
The duck is a Malllard so will presumably fly off once it has fledged but time will tell.

Sorry about the quality of the photos, it is remarkably difficult to catch the little bugger while it is legging it round the crate as the hen gets frantic.

Boundary markers

On the old OS maps the corners of fields are often market with trees. I've included a couple of the trees used as boundary markers on our holding.

This one is on the south west boundary on a terraced slope. I don't have records of when this was done.

This tree marks the next field along on the southern boundary and is on the corner of an old fence line, both trees are Sycamore.