Election Results, Bees

Well, the Farmer & I went to cast our votes at the local chapel vestry on Thursday evening and there were certainly no queues of people waiting to excercise their democratic right.. In fact the turnout, by the time we arrived had been very poor apparently. We are in a strong Plaid Cymru constituency and the Plaid candidate was returned without too much difficulty, though the Labour party did increase its votes, which surprised us.
But, whether we have a hung parliament or a majority rule, as the Farmer says, he will still have to get up to milk the cows and Westminster will continue to creak along.

This afternoon the Farmer went to the annual auction put on by the local bee-keepers. It is a sale of bee colonies, hives and equipment. However, bees are now very expensive, well over £100 for a colony and some go for far more. I think we shall be hoping for swarm to arrive in one of the hives that are placed around the farm. The bee population is suffering badly these days, with disease and predation by wasps. Last summer we lost our one remaining colony to the wasps who get into the hives and it is difficult to prevent them. we had wasp traps out and caught many but they still caused huge problems in the hives. I have found several queen wasps already this year, though they have been very dopey, just emerging from hibernation.
Bumble bees have been very active for many weeks now and in considerable numbers and with so many trees coming into blossom now they are busy lumbering around the flowers in their rather drunken way, but it is still very cold for many of the pollinating insects.