Editor's Comment - July 2008

Well, I had to phone a friend in the form of my beekeeper mentor, the long suffering Chris but I did it - with some help from the reluctant beekeeper in the form of my partner, Mick. I had been out all day judging for Ponies UK showing society and arrived home, absolutely exhausted, thinking only of a hot bath and a cold glass of wine. As I went to shut the gate, I glanced at my entrancing mare and foal only to see the unmistakable sight of a swarm hanging from the tree. I've never seen one in real life before but have seen lots of pictures and it was immediately recognisable.

Lots of emotions went through my head, but a surge of determination also set in. Last year I lost a colony, it simply faded because I think now there was no queen. Earlier on this year, fired up by our beekeeping course, Mick had cleansed the hive and reassembled it empty in the same area as our other good hive. I'm so glad he did this because we were all ready to go. One thing I have learnt about beekeeping is that beekeepers do seem to have many different methods of arriving at the same point and also that you have to adjust your methods according to the situation. Chris told me to put a board against the hive and get the swarm to walk up hill into the hive. So with the board in place, I tottered up on the stepladder and snipped the end of the branch with some secateurs.

It was a reasonably chilly mid-evening and the swarm barely moved as I did this so with a box balanced under them, I carried them over to the hive with Mick offering assistance.

I have no idea how a bee knows that a hive is a good place to be but they did as Chris had said they would and I stood there, fascinated, as the whole swarm walked up the board and into the hive. They went in a very orderly fashion, with those at the bottom waiting patiently for their turn. I waited until they had all gone in because it was amazing sight and I could hardly believe it was happening.

The next day I made a quick check to see if they were still there (apparently if the queen is left behind they fly straight back to where they were) but they were and now that hive is busy too. So I feel different now. I know I am a very, very novice beekeeper with vast amounts to learn, I realise it was a very well behaved swarm in a perfect place but I do feel huge satisfaction. I was thinking later that this feeling of achievement is something that all smallholders feel although we don't always put it into words. Last year my tomatoes were prolific and they carried on until November. I couldn't help feel really good about this although again, it was partly because the weather was kind (they were in the greenhouse) but also due to my efforts. It doesn't matter what age you are when you are smallholding because there are always new things to do that you've never done before. Even things you didn't think you could do which result in not only satisfaction but a huge confidence rush when you achieve them. I know Mick felt that way about the hay last year when he had about seven rainless days in the entire summer to get it from wet grass to really lovely hay. Every time he feeds it, he must feel that sense of getting something right. For those of us who have to go out to work, sometimes the days go badly and to get home to collect your own eggs, harvest your own vegetables, feed your sheep or plan a new enterprise, does renew confidence often lost in the world of work and everyday life.

Not entirely unconnected with this thought, is the experience I recently had visiting our local community college for 11 to 19-year-olds. Because of my parish council work, I was asked to be a local authority governor last year. My own school life was a mess and I left school barely 15 with no qualifications and a real phobia about schools. I thought too that getting involved would help me to revisit this painful period of my life. The good news is that schools are not like they were almost forty years ago. I am aware that some people feel that old fashioned discipline would be good but this isn't the place to debate this subject; what I would say is that there are more opportunities to learn in the way that each individual child needs whether it be gifted and talented or in need of special mentoring. What really caught my eye though was the large, new school gardens adjacent to the playing fields. This is a new initiative and is proving really popular with the produce going into the kitchen. They have an evening gardening club, which also involves parents. I really wish they had had that at our school, I would have been so interested. When I was at school, the existing successful school farm was just in the process of being closed and when I said I wanted to help with it I was told that the way to get into farming was to get an agricultural degree, not to do practical work. Surely both would have been the optimum ideal? In addition to the garden, some students go out to a farm once a week to help with practical tasks there. Does anyone remember the old rural science O' level? Seems like we are going a full circle here. Mind you, when I sat in on a Key stage 3 Maths Class and realised that I couldn't answer the geometry questions at all, perhaps I shouldn't use the word circle It was great to see so many of you at the RWAS Smallholder and Garden Festival and hear the amazing stories of how people became smallholders. The accounts of new smallholders in this issue are inspirational I think and shows that it can be done even in almost impossible circumstances. Do please keep sending us your experiences of how you began smallholding and why.

July is a busy month for me with the garden, the bees and keeping control of my hens! I have subdued them a bit with runs and careful cockerel culling but they still catch me out.

I cannot resist letting them free every evening to range round the fields and some reprobates take advantage by sloping off and going broody in the hay shed. Julie, who happens to be cook at the school I mentioned, is very good at finding these. Last week we retrieved one with nine chicks and one with three from the depths of the hay. Yet can I find a broody to sit on my Muscovy eggs from Builth Wells? No of course not!

To find out more about my day to day life, do log on to www.smallholder.co.uk/news/bloggers. n