Early Autumn Pinks

I've always loved the oranges, reds, yellows and magentas of hot summer planting, which perfectly straddle the bleaching heat of July through to August with the cooler tones of August through to September. I've planted some heleniums and asters to this end but I noticed today the garden has some wonderful dusky pinks which I absolutely love and I think look understated and beautiful as the season fades. I must confess to loving autumn and not terribly regretting leaving behind the hot humid conditions!

Achillea fading to a fantastic antique rose

Purple Sedum, loved by pollinators

Aster and Salvia

Echinacea purpurea

Scabiosa 'Crown'

Uniting Bee Colonies

For beekeepers, this is the time of year when it is time to check that the colonies in our care are fit and well and ready to overwinter. Small or late swarms will need extra provisions by way of excess honey from another colony, honey from your own collected stock (NOT shop bought honey) or if no alternative, sugar solution.

Colonies without a queen will not survive the winter, so will need uniting with a queenright hive. I had been wondering how to do this, as in have had two swarms which started off with a laying queen, then she suddenly seemed to vanish with no attempt by the other bees to rear a new queen. I don't know what is going on but I was wanting to unite them as they have built up a good supply of stores and they will be robbed by wasps and other bees if they start to dwindle. In a National hive, uniting colonies is a simple procedure as one can place newspaper between two boxes and place one on top of the other.

I have WBCs and it is less straightforward to do this as the hives have an inner and an outer casing. Thankfully I read this timely and excellent post about queenless colonies here on the Simple Bees website and have used their method to combine my two WBCs. I placed the weaker colony next to the strong one during the evening when all the bees were inside and put some peasticks over the entrance so that the bees would re-orientate themselves to the new position of the hive. After a couple of days, I then moved the hive back and the bees without a queen have been accepted in to the stronger colony. There are no dead bees, no fighting. There is some honey left in the frames which I will move over when I do the final check before winter.

The bees are much quieter now that the days are
starting to shorten and the weather is cooler

Summer to Autumn

After a summer of hot spells and storms, it appears that autumn is fast approaching. The bees are much quieter and having to deal with wasp raids as well as ejecting drones who sadly don't get to spend the winter in the hive, having done their duty. The new growth on the plants that I cut back a few weeks ago is deep green and hunkering down ready for dormancy, and the annuals are covered in seed pods, ready for collection. Ten chicks hatched and struggled to cope with the heat a few weeks ago, but 9 are now in their new home under a lamp - I kept one chick back as I wasn't sure it would thrive; tucked under the feather duvet of mother hen means it will be warm and spoilt rotten.

Plums, damsons and apples are becoming ripe and ready to pick, eat and preserve. Having found a good jam recipe here I'm looking forward to trying it out on this small haul from a friend's garden.

It's always handy to keep a bee skep in the boot of the car!