I saw a thing in the garden (3 Viewers)

[therealjohnny]

I was walking home and a dog walking young lady coming the opposite way told me there's a massive swarm of bees down the road there. She thought I was passing through but the swarm is at my front door.

I felt ever so clever to to say "that's grand, they're just swarming, it's that time year".
She looked confused.
"There's a beekeeper that lives over there, theze bees are just looking for a new gaff, they're too busy to be dangerous".

And in that inimitable posh English way of not wanting to be seen to not know what's happening, while obviously not having any idea what's happening, she said "oh, ok, great!".

Anyway, thousands and thousands of the lads darkening the sky, but one can just walk straight through the swarm. It's amazing.

Wow. Really? I watched a swarm go by my window one day years ago and was in awe of the immense size and my fundamental fear of being stung. My dad was a bee keeper, but they scare me. We had them in our chimney until last year and I kind of feel for the ones that come back exploring their old giving grounds. But in summary... It's possible to walk through a swarm of bees?

 

[seanc]

It is absolutely possible to walk through a swarming, unless you're deathly allergic to a sting.

Not to be flippant, but unless you're wearing some sort of frilly attire that a bee might get trapped in, you're grand. I was a third hand apiarist in old work when the original beekeeper* quit, and the second manager guy took over, but he realised he needed to do his own actual job. I, apparently, did not need to do my own actual job. So the bees. I had the suit and smoker and all. Loved it.

The lads only have enough energy to explore, find a cool gaff, go back and convince enough of the rest of them to come with.
How that happens I don't know. Endlessly fascinating are the bees.

*Big manager guy thought having bees onsite was a good eco selling point. Original beekeeper, it was just a thing he did.

 

[magicbastarder]

I was told recently you can get grants for putting beehives on buildings. I see little point in that unless you've someone to look after them; and it does nothing for biodiversity anyway.

 

[magicbastarder]

This is a good thread about the madness of the way land is managed. The context here is the UK but there are parallels with the way things are done in Ireland.

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[magicbastarder]

i spotted recently, while trying to identify a bird in the back garden, using our binoculars, that a house behind us clearly has a beehive in their chimney. it's been quite active over the last few weeks.
i don't know if they know about it, but i am not really in a position to call around to them to say, hey, i was looking at your house with my binoculars and spotted something...

 

[ann post]

i spotted recently, while trying to identify a bird in the back garden, using our binoculars, that a house behind us clearly has a beehive in their chimney. it's been quite active over the last few weeks.
i don't know if they know about it, but i am not really in a position to call around to them to say, hey, i was looking at your house with my binoculars and spotted something...

Are those bees gonna get toasted when the weather changes and fire goes on?

 

[magicbastarder]

don't know. does honey burn?

 

[pavlos]

We had a visitor yesterday morning.

 

[seanc]

Google Search

Thingsishouldhaveknownbeforenow but swans kill other birds' babies. It's a territorial/resource thing. So the swan and the Egyptian geese had a battle outside my gaff just now.
Some tourists came by on a RIB, which is rare but it happens. They saw the angry swan and the frightened geese and at full throttle interceded between. They forced the swan upriver while geese escaped downriver.

I only see one gosling right now, there was two yesterday.


Then I finished my cup of tea and went inside and boiled the kettle again.

 

[flashback]

Thingsishouldhaveknownbeforenow but swans kill other birds' babies. It's a territorial/resource thing.

Swans are lunatics. They'd kill you if they'd half a chance. There were swans in the local canal that would start fights with you if you came past in a kayak, or by foot (if they were feeling feisty).

 

[seanc]

I haven't seen any kind of hairy caterpillar in, I dunno, decades. Here's this lad enjoying the mint. He has golden tufts at front and grey ones down the tail.
Looks like a wee dragon. Can't really get a better photo, it's breezy.

 

[the_jen]

Here's this lad enjoying the mint.

That might be a gooseberry plant?

 

[seanc]

That might be a gooseberry plant?

I'll ask himself, but I'm pretty sure it's mint. Actually, he'll probably start growing gooseberrys if I put the idea in his head. We have enough gooses here already though.
In other berry news, the greengage on the trellis has gone from ornamental to H&S hazard. You can almost see it growing as you look at it. The thing is clothes-lining me when me when I'm walking into the gaff.

Anyway, saw both the Egyptian goslings yesterday, I thought the swan killed one, so that's a relief.

 

[magicbastarder]

definitely not mint! i reckon gooseberry also.

 

[seanc]

Yeah. Alright.

Asked him and indeed there are gooseberrys. He says it's ok if you trim it right. In my head a gooseberry plant is far too big for a plant pot. But I am wrong.

Can't fit a plant pot inside my head.

 

[hydromancer]

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[seanc]

What is this?

This perfect web appeared above the kettle and toaster in the few hours that I was out of the gaff

Translucent and gold and very hard for this shit phone to photo.

HALP!

 

[seanc]

Three more Egyptian geese fluffs appeared today. Not sure if they're the children or grandchildren of the first two I met.

 

[seanc]

Wrong thread probably, but when my mum planted trees, she'd have dad hammer a stake into the ground, then tie them together to keep the tree growing upright.

This fancy fish and chip shop I'm sitting in has gone and planted scaffolding poles.
Moreso, in true festival standard, they have double pegged (shut up Cormcolash) the scaff.