Ducklings, Bees and Roadworks

Jean is having a ball with the ducklings. They follow her everywhere but then they become exhausted and just collapse in a pile. Wacky has fully recovered although being the last born is noticeably smaller that the others. But Wacky is the leader of the pack. Wherever they go Wacky is out in front showing the way. They are now known as the “Wack Pack”. Last night Jean lead them from the day pen to the house, into the laundry, through the kitchen down the hall and into the bathroom before scooping them up and putting them into the night bassinet. As usual baby sitting has taking priority over every thing else although a bit of hand watering can take place as the “Wack Pack” will sit around and watch.

The bees are “bearding” by lunch time. This is a common sight on hot, humid days with a big hive and a good nectar flow. They have collected so much nectar that they cannot dry it unless some of the bees move outside and allow more ventilation space. The configuration is different from a swarming hive and it is past the swarming season. You can see from the photograph that bees are still arriving with nectar. Another test is to hold a lighted match near the opening. One side will show air going in and the other air going out. A solution might be to make larger ventilation grills in the lid or put in a spare box with grills added. I'm loath to do this because it could create a haven for SHB. I may just let them sort this out themselves rather than continually interfere.

 

 

Despite the hot humid day after baking some savoury sour-dough biscuits and weeding another garden bed I finally bit the bullet and got stuck into repairing the potholes in our 300 metre bitumen driveway. It took just over three bags of bitumen to finish the job which is just as well as that is all we had. One hole was that deep it required some filling rocks and a bit of concrete to bind it all. But the job is finished. The worst part was walking back up the steep drive to collect more bags of bitumen and when finally finished pushing the wheelbarrow with the tools home.

 

My list is getting shorter.