Heaps of honey at Pentre Bach!

When we got our hive and small nucleus of bees , complete with queen, earlier this year , we thought it would just be a case of establishing a colony, keeping them alive and healthy, in the hope that they'd produce enough honey stocks to help them survive throughout the winter ready to multiply and produce lots of honey next year. HOWEVER!!! We didn't take into account what a brilliant summer we would have this year, plus the fact that our hive is the only one for miles around so they had free range to forage far and wide (well up to 3 miles away)in an around the village of Llwyngwril. Our hive was also situated in our walled garden where there was an absolute abundance of foraging material from flowering fruit trees, flowering green bean plants and dozens of sweet pea plants. In early September I cleared and removed the top super (a section of the hive with 10 frames of honeycomb, where the bees store honey and the queen is excluded from laying eggs). It was groaning with capped honey! Meanwhile I'd added another 10 frames of fresh wax foundation to another super in the hope that they might still be collecting and storing nectar and pollen. I asked my mentor, Paul, if I could go and watch him extract some of his honey , so that I would know what to do when I borrowed a spinner from the local beekeeping association. He kindly suggested that I bring my frames to his place and use his electric spinner. I was there like a shot! The whole process took less than an hour. My 10 frames were turned into 26 jars of clear runny honey with minimal fuss, effort or stickiness! Paul told me to put the super of wet frames back into the hive for the bees to 'lick' the remains of the honey off the combs to take back down into the brood box to store for the winter. I did this and after inspecting the hive a week later , found that they hadn't 'licked' it dry but continued to produce more honey! They'd also filled and capped the frames I'd added a week or two earlier. The bees were doing so well, I had to buy another super and make up 10 more frames! I couldn't keep up! So after a fantastic October we had another 20 frames full of capped honey to extract and the bees still had a super full of honey to keep themselves, as well as lots of honey in the brood box (where the queen was still busily laying eggs!). I didn't want to impose on Paul again so managed to track down the beekeeping association's manual extractor and brought it back to Pen y Lon. Mike and I spent an exhausting afternoon using this extractor. We had to take turns, with one vigorously cranking the handle while the other sat on top of the drum to keep it from jumping around the kitchen! We managed to extract a couple of plastic bucketsful of deliciously smelling honey but there was also honey everywhere and the buckets had a scum of particles of wax about 2 cms deep on the top. What to do now? We'd passed it through a double honey sieve but that obviously wasn't fine enough. Muslin! That was the answer! The honey wouldn't go off so it could wait until we'd been over to York for a family visit. We managed to buy some muslin in a Lakeland shop. We were all set! Back home and we set about straining a ladleful of honey through the muslin into a clean jam jar. 12 hours later and it was still straining - literally! Back to the drawing board. We tried cheesecloth but the holes in that just stretched so anything could pass through. In the end we just strained the honey again through finer plastic sieves and eventually all the honey was jarred up- 44 jars in all! It does have a fine film of wax on top but hey, what does it matter? SO ........ we were just going to give jars of honey to friends and family as presents but we'd still have shelves groaning with jars of honey. We may as well sell it. Anyone know anyone who would like to buy some? We've also got the Beekeeping Association AGM coming up where everyone tastes each others honey. How will ours compare? Will they be able to taste runner bean and sweet pea?

The new look Pentre Bach!

Mike started cleaning the main house back in April then gradually over the next weeks and months he worked his way round the house masking windows, painting walls, replacing guttering, repairing and painting facia boards, etc. This all had to be fitted in between guests staying and so during the busy summer months , nothing could be done at all. He used ladders, cherry pickers, scaffolding, ladders on top of patio roofs, etc. It was a momentous job but now its finished and it was all worth while - it looks a treat. What an improvement on the dull grey walls of the old look Pentre Bach House. Now all that remains to be done is change all our website! And lets hope it doesn't have to be repainted for many years to come!

Little Nell

I was born on the 21st of May, 2014 in a stable on a farm near Talsernau, not far from Harlech. I had lots of fun growing up with my three brothers and two sisters. One by one they all went away to new homes far away , then on the 31st of July , when I was 10 weeks old, my new mum and dad came to collect me in a little white van and I sat on my mum's knee all the way back to Pentre Bach. I saw all sorts of interesting things on the way but it was a bit scary! It's great here at Pentre Bach. I've got loads of space to run and chase leaves and butterflies and things. Last week they took me to a place where there was a huuuuuge big puddle and kept throwing stones into it for me to get but every time I jumped into the big puddle I couldn't find them. Every time we go out for a walk we meet lots of big friendly humans who like to make a fuss of me. I wag my tail a lot and lick their hands and they seem to like that. A few days ago another big dog just like me came to stay. She was called Mizzle. I was a bit scared at first and hid behind my mum and dad but I soon got used to her and really really liked playing with her, chasing her and jumping up to nip her ears or her tail. She didn't mind a bit! She's gone away again but she's going to come and stay again sometime soon. Ah well I better go and give my dad a hand with some jobs. We're going to do some digging- my favourite!

Tweet , tweet , tweet at Pentre Bach!

We do our best to encourage birds at Pentre Bach by providing nesting boxes and putting out food on birdfeeders around the house and gardens. We also leave access to the barn through a special 'swallow door' so that our regular swallow visitors can get back to their nest in the roof of the barn where they've been returning to raise their young for a number of years. We don't really mind putting up with the bird poo all over the work bench for a few weeks! The house transformation from dull grey to magnolia has been coming along a treat and two sides have been completed. However, thanks to our feathered friends, the painting of the front has now been put on hold. The swallows have built a total of 14 nests under the eaves all around the main house and Y Popty. They're fascinating to watch as they come and go, sometimes landing on the nests and squeezing them selves in and at other times just swooping in near to the nests and swerving off into the sky again. we'll enjoy watching the young making their first attempts at flying in the next few weeks and then we'll be able to resume with our painting again. We've also been busy planting and growing a number of hanging baskets which have been coming on nicely in the greenhouse. It was time to hang them out this week but as we were coming and going from the greenhouse this week we noticed a little wren hanging around. Then when Mike was hanging one basket outside the back door of the main house, he noticed a perfectly round hole underneath. On further examination he could feel five or six tiny eggs inside the hole. So... ...... back to the greenhouse with that particular hanging basket until the wrenlets fledge.

The wren's nesting place! Then this evening, after a stroll down to the beach, we were just closing up all the windows and doors when we just caught sight of our local, friendly robin, hopping around the back porch. One more minute and he would've been locked in there for the night. Mind you that wouldn't have been the first time!

Summer Events coming up!

If you're very active or just prefer to watch then there are loads of events coming up in the next few weeks. The first is tonight- Race the Train in Fairbourne - I was tempted to take part but it clashed with my Welsh class. What a shame. This weekend the fantastic Three Peaks Yacht Race starts from Barmouth harbour (around 3.30ish on Saturday June 7th). I was hoping to help set them off with Batala Bermo at the quayside but unfortunately have to be elsewhere that day. You can follow the race all the way to Ben Nevis on the website www.threepeaksyachtrace.co.uk Other events coming up include the Trail Marathon in Coed y Brenin on the 21st of June. We have some guests staying at Pentre Bach that weekend who are taking part. Good luck to them! Also that day is the North Wales Country Fair in Bala. Merrionnydd Beekeepers' Association have a stall there! And on the same day is the Tywyn Summer Solstice Lantern Parade! Busy day. There's a Country Music and Line Dance Festival in Barmouth over the weekend of 5-6th July. Yee Ha! Then of course there's the annual Talyllyn Race the Train setting off from Tywyn on the 16th of August. Will I take part this year?

Bizzzzzy bees at Pentre Bach!

We’re all aware of how important honeybees are to our ecology and that in recent years numbers of bees world-wide have been dwindling. We’ve decided to do our bit to help increase the honeybee population, and so in early 2014 I became a member of Meirionnydd Beekeeping Association and subsequently undertook an intensive beekeeping course

run by the association over the course of three weekends. Meanwhile we obtained a hive and the various necessary pieces of beekeeping equipment and set about getting ready for our bees. The hive came as flat pack (not from IKEA!) and proved quite a challenge to build (although not too much to a man of Mike’s carpentry abilities!) and then we had to choose an appropriate location for our hive. With the help of a local established beekeeper, we decided to put our hive in the walled garden where the bees would be able to forage an abundance of pollen and nectar from our fruit and vegetable plants and in turn help us by pollinating our plants, while at the same time, would be a safe distance away from our guests. The hive can be spotted through a gap in the wall, yet is far enough away from the garden and field so as not to be troublesome to our guests. At the end of May our first nucleus arrived and within a few days was transferred into our own brand new hive. I managed to get stung on the chin during this process despite being well and truly suited up and ended up looking like the Elephant man! The colony should grow to around 50,000 honeybees by the end of the summer although that will decrease to around 20,000 over the winter. They're absolutely fascinating creatures and it's very tempting just to spend the odd hour or two sitting watching them come and go. The honey that is produced this year will most likely just be suffice to supply the colony with enough food to last them over the winter but hopefully by next summer 2015 Pentre Bach honeybees will be making enough honey for us to be able to sell some to our guests. We’ve also planted a wild flower meadow at the far end of our vegetable plot to help enrich the honey. Bizzzzy times ahead!

Get together in Llwyngwril! - Party People at Pentre Bach

Following on from the blog about the reasons why people come to Pentre Bach and Llwyngwril, the most popular reasons have, by far, been to celebrate significant birthdays, big family get togethers and student reunions. Large groups can just book the main house, or if required, the adjoining cottages Y Popty and Y Llaethdy. Families can eat together, party together and play games together, yet also have the space to get away from each other when they want some peace and quiet. Adults love the cosy traditional farm kitchen, the grand dining room and the window seats where they can curl up with a good book and gaze out upon Cardigan Bay. Children of all ages, enjoy the dressing up hamper, the hiding places in all the little nooks and crannies, the large field where they can play all sorts of ball games, the tyre swings and the table tennis room. The treasure hunt can also lead them round the village in search of the answers. Many groups have crazy fancy dress parties while others prefer a more sophisticated catered dinner party. We've recently found an excellent new local caterer who will cater for anything from a three course waiter service meal to a barbeque or even wedding reception! Here are a few pics of groups enjoying Pentre Bach!