The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
and sorry I could not travel both,
and be one traveler, long I stood
and looked down one as far as I could,
to where it bent in the undergrowth.

I suppose it’s possible [there may be some deluded and bored people out there who read this drivel] some of you may know that I am a beekeeper and that a couple of weeks ago I got my first beehives in Sweden. I did my first inspection today, but more of that later

The last few days have been planting time, don’t you just love this time of year. We have almost filled all the veggie beds I’ve dug. We’ve planted onions, garlic, carrots, beans, chard, beetroot and parsnip so far – I think. We’ve also made some additions to the orchard adding red and blackcurrants, gooseberries [red and green], raspberries and rhubarb. There’s plenty more still to do, good job I like being busy.

So what’s been happening?

We had our second failure of hatching eggs. This time the Silver Appleyards ducks. None of the eight eggs we had in the incubator were viable. Coming so soon after the Cream Legbars this was a bitter blow. I’m beginning to suspect that it may have something to do with the postal system. Either they’re x-rayed which does nothing for their hatchability or they’re shaken so much in transit that very few survive.

Things have been a real mixed bag around here lately, full of highs and lows. The Brecon Buff eggs I was expecting took over a week to arrive in the post, which is really disappointing. I’m not sure how many will be viable, but the in the incubator and I have my fingers crossed. The Cream Legbar eggs that were due to hatch went disastrously wrong and we got one out of twelve, another big disappointment.