The afternoon work session started as usual, greenhouses opening, picking some raspberries and hoping that I will finally get some weeding done. I did actually clear one of my net cages when Simon , who was watering his grapevines, called out – come and have a look! I couldn’t believe my eyes, there was another swarm of bees in one of our trees.

I find them fascinating, how they manage to hang there like this, just quietly pulsating and changing places. I phoned Wayne and he came to have a look. He wasn’t sure if these were his bees or if they came from somewhere else. Either way the fact that we have a number of hives on the site is  quite obviously good for the fruit trees and bushes. My fruit trees are laden with fruit – I know, it could be a combination of factors but the bees are helping a great deal. All this supports the efforts we make not to use any weedkillers or sprays, anything that may harm them. We must make more effort to protect them because without bees we wouldn’t survive very long.