The queen in one of our hives is not doing too well (probably failed to mate properly last year when the weather was so bad and is laying erratically) so we decided to re-queen the hive using the ‘Snelgrove’ method. This uses a special board with several doors which allows you to move the bees to different parts of the hive. Some of the bees make a new queen which hopefully mates successfully and begins laying properly. The older queen is then kept in another small nucleus hive as a back up.

All the 5 Lancaster entrants passed their basic bee exam!

This month’s Lancaster bee keepers association meeting was a guided walk and talk about plants for bees, held at Yealand manor.

Roof trusses finally arrived on site this week and were lifted in place. We have been waiting for these and work has been held up (just like on Grand Designs) but should move forward, with a joiner now on site and builders returning to work on the roof. In line with our commitment to using local materials where we can, we have ordered  Westmorland ‘blue’ slate which comes in various sizes to help us create the curving roof. The shape and the material will both help the building to sit naturally in the landscape.

As part of our trials of organic greens’ managment we are using a microbial solution to prevent fusarium, a fungal disease which can affect greens, particularly in humid weather. Fusarium is always present but in stressed conditions can spread and get out of control, killing patches of grass and leaving brown marks. As we are only working on one green we made the application by hand. We are working with Simon Brockholes who provides the ‘effective microbes’ solution.

Thistles flowering this month attract lots of bumblebees. This is a red-tailed bumble Bombus lapidarius and a buff-tailed Bombus terrestris. Lots of information on the bumblebee conservation trust website.

A young female blackbird managed to find its way into the redcurrant bushes despite the netting and unfortunately got caught up in it. After being cut free it flew off. It didn’t seem to be able to use one of its legs for the next couple of days but that didn’t stop it feeding and catching worms, just made it a bit wobbly! Back to normal now. We regularly have about 6 blackbirds feeding on the mown grass paths of the vegetable garden.

We have had a bumper crop of redcurrants and raspberries this year. Been making redcurrant jelly and raspberry jam as well as eating them.

We attended a South Lakeland Orchard Group visit to Sprint Mill where Edward and Romola Achland showed us round their garden and orchard. There was a chance to try out sycthing in the orchard as well as discussion of problems of scab and canker on different varieties of apple. Tea and cakes in the garden of the old mill were very much appreciated but ended abruptly with a heavy cloudburst.

Edward Ackland makes gates, hurdles and implements from clefted oak and hazel from his woods. 

Four members of the Lancaster Beekeepers Association came to Forrest Hills for a practice session led by Richard Wilson in preparation for their exam with the regional bee inspector Ian Molineux. This is the Basic Beekeeping exam which covers handling of bees, use of equipment, bee diseases etc.

For the last 15 years, Forrest Hills have provided a venue for the Lancashire Clubs for Young People’s ‘quad squad’ programme which gives opportunities for young people to learn about driving, mechanical and road safety skills.

To celebrate LACYP’s 75th aniversary and relaunch of the Lancaster ‘Boys Club’ we were invited to the official opening by HRH the Duke of Gloucester.

Forrest Hills recently hosted the Bowland Sustainable Tourism Network’s ‘Green Ideas’ day. It brought together the different members of the network and included practical sessions on making your own cleaning products, Bokashi composting, bird box making and web site design. Members also had a tour of Forrest Hills including the garden areas and the resource centre building work.

A bumper harvest of strawberries this year. We have tried several different varieties including ‘Alice’; ‘Royal Sovereign’; ‘Malling Pandora’ and ‘Honey oye’. The last two don’t redden as much as the others but are still very ripe and sweet.

Redcurrants, whitecurrants and raspberries are all fruiting well. So far, we have made redcurrant jelly and strawberry jam. The jam uses strawberries and a half quantity of redcurrants based on an Ashburton Cookery School  recipe. We attended the cookery school’s ‘Garden to Table’ course run by Rob Dawe in 2007 and found it very enjoyable and useful for what we are doing here.