We Got Eggs!!

Good news

This morning at about 7.15 I was woken by my dearly beloved. "Nice" I thought, "but isn't it a bit early?"

It's never too early for good news! In his hand was one perfectly formed chickens egg. Light brown, slightly more knobbly than a supermarket egg but perfectly and beautifully ours!Bob put it in the kitchen in an empty egg box (we've been saving them a little while, rather prematurely as it turns out) so we can look at it and marvel at the arrival of the first egg from our beautiful feathered girls.

After a lazy morning making phone calls and sitting with the kitten and one of the cats curled up on me I finally got dressed and popped out to check on the chickens and let them out. As I'd not depooped the coop last night I had a look in the nesting box and blow me down if there wasn't another perfect beautiful speckled brown egg. So I put it next to it's friend in the box and sent a text to Bob. 

"Blimey" says he

"That brings down the average cost per egg to just £400"

The girls have a lovely bustle to them now. Their feathers have grown in and when you pick them up they are definitely more solid. As it turns out when you pick them up they often poo on you, however there's no such thing as a free lunch so it's all good. They have also worked out how to climb on the table to get at my flower pots. I'm currently still entertained by this but I think I may need to come up with a solution quite soon.

I plan to let Brinsley Animal Rescue know how well the ladies are doing!

Yesterday I met a fellow bee keeper. We were digging the bindweed roots out of a former raspberry patch at the shared garden. This is a group of alottments tended by a group of people who share the work and the proceeds equally. I asked how it was going and he said "I'm a very new bee keeper. More a bee haver than a bee keeper" I think this describes us new stewards of bees well.

So far a bee hive is in my garden. Bees continue to choose to live in it. I count myself lucky that my mistakes have not resulted in a wholesale departure. I read that a hive which is still collecting pollen is a healthy hive for it is pollen that feeds the growth of the brood. This means they are planning for the winter ahead. I hope they feel comfortable in their corner of the garden.

On an abstract note I have always tried to imagine what it was like to live in bygone ages. There's an idea that at the time it must have felt like the olden days. But really now is always now. In 1066 when the english were trying to repel the French invasion it felt as modern to us as the prospect of war does in syria. For the people who lived then every today was the most modern the world had ever been . They felt the way we feel now every day when they woke up.

I realise bees are insects but they have the most extraordinary communication skills. Sometimes I wonder how it must feel to be a bee, growing, cleaning, foraging, raising other bees, working for the queen. Does their reality feel like ours? Do they in fact feel that they are keeping People at the end of their garden in a big people hive?

Who knows. 

I wish you Joy of the day

Katherine