Two weeks ago we went into the hives for the first time this season. Of the five hives, two are strong and look like they could have a very productive year if good weather continues. Two were well but not as strong - fewer bees and less ‘brood’ (the eggs and larva that will develop into bees). The last hive was queenless with no brood and few bees. This is a critical situation for the hive so we have ‘united’ it with one of the two not-so-strong hives. This will gives both a better chance of survival. This picture shows the united hives in the foreground. One is placed on top of the other with newspaper in between allowing the bees from the two colonies to gradually get used to each other. After a few days they eat through the paper and the two colonies should successfully become one.

Colin and Ginny went to Hornby Institute today to receive a Green Tourism Business Scheme ‘Gold Award’. Several other businesses in the Forest of Bowland area achieved accreditation too. Colin was asked to give a short presentation about a couple of the projects at Forrest Hills relevant to sustainability. He talked about our food production and the resource centre. 

This is Forrest Hills second award for green tourism,  the first gained back in 2005 was through the Lancashire ‘Green Tourism’  scheme.

Lady’s Smock (or Cuckoo flower, May flower, Cardamine pratensis ) has appeared especially in the damper areas of grassland near the river. Also flowering now is the Wood anemone (Anemone nemorosa) or wind flower. These are indicators of ancient woodland as they are a very slow spreading plant so tend to have stayed in their original territory.

The bluebells have just come into flower too and are looking at their best. They fill Blea Tarn wood.

Finally Marsh Marigolds are blooming. Also known as Kingcups, Mayflower and May-Blobs these are very ancient species.

The swallows are very active today swooping into buildings and feeding on all the newly hatched flies. Our first swallow arrived on April 13th this year which prompted us to look up previous years’ arrival dates. Our first record starts in 1983. Their favourite perching place is on the telephone wire that runs between two of the farm buildings. There are quite a few websites around now that encourage recording timings of nature - phenology.

Others dates recorded over the years were when the ‘cows were first turned out in spring’ (usually a similar time to the arrival of the swallows); ’silage cuts’ and ‘cows coming in for winter’. Two of note were ‘May 30th 1992 - first 50 rainbow trout put in the newly created fly fishing lake’ and ‘August 27th 1996 - stopped milking’.

Swallow arrival dates

1983 - April 19th                                  1984 - April 20th                    1985 - April 8th
1986 - April 27th                                  1987 - April 20th                    1988 - April 18th
1989 - April 25th                                  1990 - April 28th                    1991 - April 29th
1992 - April 22nd                                 1993 - April 12th                    1994 - April 2nd
1995 - April 9th                                    1996 - April 15th                    1997 - April 16th
1998 - April 14th                                  1999 - April 14th                    2000 - no record
2001 - no record                                   2002 - April 20th                    2003 - April 17th
2004 - no record                                   2005 - no record                     2006 - April 8th
2007 - April 11th                                  2008 - April 10th                    2009 - April 13th

The recent dry weather has meant that we can get on with work in the vegetable patch. Some planting has begun - all of the potatoes and most of the onions are in and the first sowing of carrots, parsnips and broad beans have been made. Other beds are being prepared and a lot of hoeing has been going on.

We mentioned a beetle bank in an earlier post. Bit early to notice any impact but we have had a few beetles around including a mint beetle which very hepfully eats dock leaves.

Meanwhile in the greenhouse, everything is growing like mad. The tomatoes, which have germinated in their ‘hot bed’, are due to be planted out into the main greenhouse bed this weekend. There are about 8 different varieties from large, tasty purple ones to small yellow plum which together make a wonderful tomato salad later in the year.The salad leaves are ready for their first pick and our very ‘early’ potatoes are looking healthy and strong and should soon be harvested to make way for other crops coming on. At the far end of the greenhouse are this year’s grafts of local varieties of apple trees. Done in March this year they have been kept in the greenhouse to help the grafts knit together out of any wind or rain. Most seem to have taken successfully and will be moved outside very soon protected by fleece at night until they’ve hardened off.

The warmer weather of the last month has led to a number of hatches on the fly fishing lake and river. A common sight around the lake is of spiders’ webs filled with Caenis fly. These are small and difficult to imitate but are also known as the “Angler’s curse” as trout are not easily persuaded to take the artificial with so much natural around.

Stonefly (or hardwinged fly) have not hatched yet but are due to emerge from their larval state from mid-April through to June. The photo shows a stonefly larva in the River Conder at Forrest Hills.

This photo shows a currently hatched imago (the final adult phase of its lifecycle) of an upwinged fly. It could be the ‘Olive Upright’ or ‘Yellow May’ although the latter is more common in limestone areas. They live for only a day or so in this stage. It is in their prior stage as a dun (having just emerged in its winged state) that the flies are popular with trout and therefore are a common imitative pattern.

Anything ‘green’ seems to be catching at the moment including dark and light olive dun patterns.

Ken took these photos on the early evening of March 31st. Reports have been coming in too of early morning sightings by golfers . We regularly see groups of 3 to 5 deer on the golf course, woods or above the fishing lake.

Good to see the new spring flowers coming out including the coltsfoot which grows in the open areas around the fly fishing lake.

In the more shaded parts primroses are making an appearance. Self-heal is adding colour in the more open ground.

Work is now moving on. The construction of the stone pillars which will support the roof,  are taking shape. Also one of the main stone towers which will hold the wood burning stove and the bread oven. The top part of both the towers will have holes left in the masonary to encourage bats and also nest boxes for swifts.