It's been a lot warmer the last few days. The sweet corn and most of the climbing beans have been planted, though I've still got Cosse Violette to do. Peas, the Cosso Violetto broad beans, which are just germinating, and the strawberries have all been moved out of the mini-greenhouses to make space, and are now under cloches. The last couple of days we've hid some ominous thunder in the afternoons, but not much rain, apart from the odd afternoon shower.

Both beehives are doing well, with the broodnests expanding slowly. The native colony has the odd drone. It'll need a lot more than that though, if I'm going to get properly mated queens.

The first of the onions are appearing through the mulch, but there's no sign of the asparagus yet. I'm still waiting for my seed potatoes, which I ordered from DT Brown in mid-March. I Emailed them ten days ago and have got no reply, so I'll have to phone them.

Meanwhile, the first of the apple blossom is open. The three new trees are all budding nicely, and look healthy so far. The hedges are all turning steadily green, and it seems that spring has arrived in earnest at last.

I haven't got much done for a couple of weeks due to weather and other commitments, but i planted a row of parsnips over the weekend. I chitted them for a week, sitting in a jar in the warm on damp tissue. Then I planted them just as the first roots began to show. I didn't dare leave them longer, as the roots are extremely easily damaged, and this is what causes forking. Supposedly, by doing it this way, germination is much better. I've planted four beds of onions, and the alliums are now taking up a ridiculous amout of space. I may cut onions out next year, as they're so cheap. The tomatoes, chillies and aubergines are doing well on the windowsill, and the second planting of sweet peas is starting to come through.

I combined the hive which went queenless a couple of weeks ago. Of the two remaining, the native one, which I want, is far and away the stronger. Apart from that, there's not much to report, but the temperature seems to be warming up, and hopefully things will be moving properly at last.

Things are progressing slowly in the garden, though I've been really busy doing extra revision classes over Easter, and the weather didn't help. We had snow everywhere last Sunday morning, but by the time I finished dealing with church business and got to the plot, it had all melted.

I've planted 20 asparagus crowns form New Park Farm in Kent; previously, I've used ones from local garden centres, and they've been no use at all. These are five times the size, some of the roots are well over a foot long, and hopefully they should be much better. They've been planted roughly six inches down in two trenches three foot six apart, one for Ginjlim and one for Backlim. These were them mulched with a couple of inches of grass cuttings. Apart from that, I've gained some more strawberry runners via a swap, and I'm halfway through planting the onions. I may cut these out next year as I'm devotong a ridiculous amount of space to alliums. The pictures show the asparagus planting; I hadn't got as far as mulching at that point.

One of the surviving bee colonies has gone queenless, leaving two. That's twice as many as I had this time last year.

The weather's continued to be cold and miserable, with not much going on on the plot. I bought 30 strawberries from http://www.blackmoor.co.uk/index.php , ten each of three varieties; Honeoye, which is early, Elsanta, midseason, and Symphony, which is late. I've gained another 12 via a swop for a couple of year-old Hellebore seedlings. I'm going to grow them on in pots, plant them out later in the year, and I should have a well-established bed by next year. The ones I inherited with the plot were no good due, presumably, to virus, and it took me a while to realise that, so i got discouraged and gave up for a few years.

Apart from that, I've planted two trays of leeks from Realseeds at http://www.vidaverde.co.uk/ , Jaune de Poitou and Bleu de Solaise, and six packets of Victorian pansies from http://www.plantsofdistinction.co.uk/ . At least, they're supposed to be Victorian, but the varieties aren't dated, unlike their old sweet pea collection, and I notice one is an F1! The sweet peas are finally emerging, despite the weather they've had to endure. They're all sitting in the mini=greenhouses, and there they can stay for a while.

Meanwhile, the fruit buds are swelling, and it's only a matter of time before spring arrives properly. I've been telling myself that for weeks. I dread to think what it wold be like sitting on the ground with my bare bum, so I'm certainly not contemplating any outdoor planting for the moment!

I've had an uneventful weekend, out at an all-day church meeting on Saturday, and hedge chopping Sunday afternoon. Only a few yards of it left, fortunately. I'm getting very tired of picking thorns out of my hands every week. The chilies and aubergines are up, on the windowsill, but I'm not even thinking of doing any planting down on the plot till the soil has had a chance to warm up a bit. I might put some in a cold frame next week, but that's the most I'll consider right now.



Meanwhile, here's a nice rare Postumus which came my way last week, after several days' worrying when it went missing between the parcels office and the Post Office. The reverse, SALVS EXERCITI, means 'the Safety of the Army', and shows Aesculapius, god of healing and medicine. Postumus ruled the breakaway Gallic Empire from 260-69, when he was murdered by rioting soldiers.

I noticed today that the SPCK bookshop in town is closing. When I came to Birmingham there were two decent Christian bookshops, then St. Paul's closed, and now this, which only leaves evangelical places which won't have anything of interest to me. There are a lot of empty shops in town again, like it was around 1990. It's the ever-increasing rents that do it, a lot of things have become uneconomical and been squeezed out. It's particularly obvious in the markets, which have been going downhill for many years.

I managed to pick up a Victoria plum to replace one I lost in the drought two summers ago. It had been grown on a single stem, and was ten feet high, which is ridiculous. I chopped it straight down to about five feet in the car park, and took all the side branches off. I'll rub off everything except three or four branches right at the top, then grow it as a half-standard.

I've checked the hives, as we had some milder weather, and they're all OK, with brood. I'm not missing the fourth, as it was quite nasty-tempered, and gave me some good stingings last year. That's always a worry with close neighbours. The one I combined it with is still as docile as ever; as usual, temper was a product of the queen not the workers, and once the queen went, the problem went.

I've done some more hedge chopping, and if I don't finish next weekend, I should certainly do so the weekend after. I'll be really glad to finish as it's a horrible job, and wielding the petrol hedge trimmer always gives me backache, quite apart from blowing fumes in my face. Some strawberry runners (Elsanta, Honeoye and Symphony) arrived yesterday. I've potted them up, and I'm going to grow them on in a cold frame until I lift the garlic, then plant them out. By next year, they should be really well established.

Apart from that, I've been to someone's 50th wedding anniversary celebrations, and their renewal of vows. Last week I met someone who'd just celebrated her 70th anniversary, which puts them in the shade.

Here are some pics of the plot. As you can see, it's in a rather weedy state at the moment. I cut back the hedge at the end this morning, so a bit of progress has been made since I took the pics a couple of days ago.

I found the bees flying well today, with three out of four colonies very active, bringing in large quantities of pollen. That alone is noteworthy, as there isn't usually much available this early in the year. I rook advantage and did a quick inspection.

The two native hives, with queens raised in the good weather in late summer last year are doing well, but with far more brood than I'd expect in February. As a result, they're using their food stores at a rate of knots, and need watching carefully. Of the two hybrid colonies, with queens raised by someone else in the bad weather at the beginning of last summer, one is moribund, and evidently lost its queen some time ago. I'm going to combine that with one of the good hives tomorrow. The other is strong and active, but has no brood at all. I suspect it's queenless as well, but I'm going to give it a while just in case. All being well, my plan now is to use the two healthy colonies for honey, take it at the end of July, and then raise new queens, with a view to starting two new hives to replace the hybrid ones.

I did a bit of digging, but that pretty much finished me for the day, as it's heavy going after all the rai we've had.

After 20-odd attempts, my wife has finally passed her driving test, so we were out celebrating last night. Apart from that, all four hives are still alive, though it's going to be another month before I can be reasonably sure that they'll survive into the coming season. The snowdrops are blooming well now, while alliums and the broad beans have put on some noticeable growth, and everything looks set for the spring. I was looking at the daffodils in the lane outside the plot yesterday; they were exhausted old bulbs which had been in pots for years, and I didn't mind too much if they got nicked. They're gradually producing more flowers, year by year, so they do recover.

What with one thing and another, there's been virtually no work done on the plot, but I've only got a week to go till half term, and I should be able to blitz it then.

My migraines have gone at last, and hopefully I can keep posting once again. I checked my beehives over the weekend, and one, the nasty-tempered one with the hybrid queen, is very light. This probably means it's producing too much brood for the time of year; yet another reason to get rid of that damn queen. I've given it some sugar syrup. It's not recommended at this time of year, but I've done it before with good results.

Many of the snowdrops are out, and the broad beans (Aquadulce Claudia) I planted last October are growing well at last. Most of the garlic is now up. I don't know why everything I put in last autumn has been so slow to emerge.

I saw a fox this afternoon, in the next plot. I used to see them often, but a few years ago there was a major outbreak of mange, and they've been a rare sight since. There was a buzzard over the site a couple of weeks ago; it's now our commonest bird of prey, and can turn up anywhere, but it's the first I've seen over the city.

The weather's been a bit drier this week, and I actually managed a little digging, but in general I haven't missed much; even if I had been well, it's mostly been impossible. We'll see whether it's going to last.

I've been getting the worst migraine I've had in years over the holiday, and between that and the weather, not much has been happening on the allotment. I've planted three species of Paeony; suffruticosa, mlokosewitchii and veitchii, and a Hellebore, bocconei, none of which can be expected to emerge before Sprng 2009. I'm relatively confident about the Paonies, anyway; Hellebores need very fresh seed so I'm less confident. Then there's a sarracenia mix, which should be up this year if it's going to germinate at all, and two Tricyrtis, macropoda and hirta. I managed ot germinate both last year, but then lost all the seedlings in a brief cold snap. Then there's Cyclamen pupurescens. All these need stratification, or cold treatment, so they've gone out in a cold frame where they can sit as long as they like.



I've treated the bees with oxalic acid solution (3.75%, with sugar added, trickled over the occupied seams); I checked yesterday, and small numbers of mites were falling out as ordered. Infestation seems very low, which is what's wanted, as it seems to confirm that my dtrain is partially resistent.



Apart from that, not much happening. Here's a rare Victorinus, ruler of the breakaway Gallic Empire from 268 till 270, when he was murdered by one of the many army officers he'd cuckolded. The obverse gives his full name; IMP C M PIAVVONIVS VICTORINVS PF AVG, which the reverse, FIDES MILITVM celebrates his relationship with the army which put him in power.

I went to the allotment today, collected some onions, looked at the frozen soil, and came home.

Never mind, here's one of my favourite coins. A moneyer's ass of Augustus, the first emperor. At 30mm and 9.73g, it's quite large and impressive. The ass was a fairly low value coin; two made a dupondius, which would buy a loaf of bread. A loaf, of course, was a glorified roll, big enough to provide a meal for one. It's called a 'moneyer's ass' because of the reverse inscription; M SALVIVS OTHO III VIR AAA FF SC. The letter 'U', of course, hadn't been invented, and 'V' did double duty. The big SC stands for 'Senatus consulto', 'By permission of the Senate', as that body was still technically responsible for the copper coinage. III VIR AAA FF means, more of less, 'Three Men for Gold, Silver and Copper'; these being the three officials responsible for the mint. it was an annual appointment, and apparently M Salvius Otho had the job in 7bc.

The obverse shows what is probably a thoroughly unlifelike portrait of Augustus, who was 56 at the time, with the inscription CAESAR AVGVST PONT MAX TRIBVNIC POT. This gives his two vital offices. The Pontifex Maximus, or High Priest (the title is still used by the Pope) controlled the religious system in Rome. He couldn't actually be a Tribune himself, as the office was restricted to Plebeians, and he was a Patrician, but Tribunicia Potestas, the power of a Tribune, gave him three things. His person was sacrosanct, or in other words, to harm him incurred the death penalty. He had the power to impose the death penalty. Above all, he had the power of veto, and could annul any law. This gave him effective control of the Senate. He allowed the appearance of power to remain with others, while jealously keeping the reality to himself.

This is another Nabataean curiosity; a lead coin of Obodas III (30-9BC). Most of his bronze was issued at the end of his reign, and is associated with his minister, Syllaeus. The first coin is a bronze, 14mm diameter, and has Syllaeus' initial, in Nabataean script (a form of Aramaic) to the left of the crossed cornucopiae on the reverse. The obverse, a bit fuzzy because it was struck with a worn die, is Obodas' portrait.

The second coin is lead, 12mm, with a rather similar portrait of Obodas. The reverse is Nike (the Greek equivalent of Victory on Roman coins), with wings outstretched, holding out a wreath. Lead coins are well known from the region, but this is the latest one I've come across. Nobody knows why they were struck.

Between the weather and other commitments, I haven't managed much on the allotment the last three weeks or so. I have done a little digging, but that's all. The last three Saturdays have been interrupted by the need for a new fridge, after the last one finally gave up the ghost. We found a nice one reduced in Curry's in town, and arranged for it to be delivered two Saturdays ago. I waited in, and they eventually arrived, smelling of drink. They were unable either to deliver it, due to the lack of a stair climber to get it up to the flat, or to explain the lack of the equipment; they'd been told about the stairs when I ordered it. So I made a complaint. Last Saturday, it finally arrived after another wait, brought by two guys who carried it up unaided by fancy equipment.

Here's a nice Nabataean coin that arrived during the week. It was a locally powerful kingdom in what's now southern Jordan, with its capital at Petra. The coin is of Aretas IV, its most influential ruler, and his wife Shaquilath. Aretas ruled from 9BC to 40AD, when the kingdom gained its wealth from trading frankincense to its Roman masters. They managed to keep the source of the incense secret, and thus became vital middlemen. Because the men spent so much time trading, the women became more influential, so they appear on the coins over a century or so. Aretas married his daughter to Herod Antipas, one of the sons of the original King Herod, who was Tetrarch of Galilee and Peraea, a small area on the East Bank. When Antipas divorced her in order to marry Herodias, Aretas was so upset that he went to war, and Antipas was trounced. Later, he, or his representatived in Damascus, tried to have the ever-tactless St. Paul killed. The coin is 19mm across, quite thick, and weighs 3.82g, making it noticeably larger and more impressive than the average scrotty little Levantine bronze.

Not much to note on the allotment. I've checked both the hives I combined, and found that both have small broodnests with iopen brood, and capped brood with nice flat cappings. There's no sign of that dronelaying queen. So it's just a matter of waiting now, to see what comes through the winter and what doesn't.

I've planted seed of four more Trillium species; erectum, parviflorum, sessile and chloropetalum, but there hasn't been much going on cultivation-wise.

I gave a talk about the allotments to the Sutton Coldfield Horticultural Society the other night, which was a new experience. All very enjoyable though, and the fee paid for the slides I had to have made; I've currently got no way of projecting digital photos, and I gave up on film cameras some time ago, so I had to have old-fashioned slides made up specially. I've got them now though, if I ever get asked to do it again.

I wonder what the Godfather films would look like if they'd focussed on other aspects of Michael Corleone's life, apart from having people killed, and the failure of his marriage? I ask because I've just watched the trilogy again, after watching my way though most of the Sopranos episodes over the summer. Some of the things Tony and his family do are just as vile, if not worse; we never see anyone in the Godfather films suffocate an old lady to steal the money under the bed, for instance. Yet all the Soprano family are so much more human, thanks to the more rounded portraits.

Psychologically (I used to work in mental health) it's very well done; you see all the narcissism, the insecurity, the poor relationship skills that the mafiosi have. I wonder how true to life it is? Itr's certainly more believable. But then,, the producers had so many more hours of film to work with.

I've just discovered that today is the anniversary of the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 AD, when Constantine I defeated Maxentius outside Rome; Maxentius drowned in the Tiber during the rout. This left Constantine as the master of the Western Empire, but it took another successful civil war before he controlled the whole of it. Whether you believe Constantine was a Christian or not, and I have my doubts, there's no question that the battle set the stage for the Christian takeover of the empire, and the subsequent development of the exclusive, intolerant monotheism which is so unfortunately familiar today.

Some have claimed that this rather enigmatic coin, issued in Constantinople either during Constantine's reign or that of his son, shows the bridge. There's no evidence to support this, and it's probably a generic bridge.

I've done the same with the broodless colony as the dronelayer; put a nuc, the bad-tempered one this time, in a hive where it was, then shaken all the bees out. Both colonies were in a temper, and I got three or four stings. I checked the new hive that's replaced the drone layer. the two strains are completely unrelated, but the drone laying queen made it back to the nest, and is still there. There are two distinct broodnests. I haven't seen this with unrelated queens before. I was short of time, and couldn't stop to find the queens. I left the bees to sort it out; they usually pick the right queen, and I doubt whether the drone layer, which they were already trying to replace, will last long.

I got the last of my garlic in yesterday, and I've dealt with one of those bee colonies, whoch cearly had a drone layer for a queen. That's an unmated queen which only lays unfertilised eggs, which develop into drones. The bees were making doomed attempts to raise a new queen, and a lot of cells were being uncapped to reveal chalk brood, a fungus disease which infects the larva. All the capped cells had the domed cappings typical of drones.

I moved the broodbox aside, and replaced it with one of the small colonies I'd put in a nucleus box. this went into a full-sized box. Then I just shook all the bees from the original colony off the frames, and fet the frames back in till I had a box full. The bees found their way back into the new colony, but the queen, hopefully, didn't. I'll check everything's OK in the next few days. That just leaves one more to do, and that'll give me two golonies headed by my own queens, and two by the bought queens. I'll see what comes through the winter, then raise more queens next year.

The hive that had eggs last time I looked now has flat capped worker brood (drone has domed caps), which confirms that the queen mated. Another one has eggs. They're taking their time, but they're getting there.

It's a miserable drizzly day, but I've at least got my walking onions in. I've planted everything, and from a single row of mini-bulbs last year, I now have a complete bed, partly mini-bulbs and partly full-sized ones. Next year I'll get to taste them.

One of those hives had a patch of eggs at the weekend, as as long as they're worker and not drone (I'll know when the larvae are capped) then everything's OK. Hopefully the others will be laying as well very shortly. It's a bit late in the season, but native British bees are known for raising queens very late, so it's not too late. It's slow progress with my hedge cutting, since it's a horrible job, but I did another 15 yards or so yesterday. I'm getting there, and once it's all cut back, hopefully I'll manage to keep pace with it this time.

I put a frame with a good patch of eggs into the hive I thought might be queenless, but by that time they seemed to be settling down, and I wasn't at all sure. Sure enough, they made no attempt to raise queens, confirming that they are indeed queenright. None of the colonies with new queens had produced brood by the weekend, which is a worry, but it's not a repeat of the disappearing queen scenario I used to get raising them in early season. Hopefully they're just a bit slow. Drones have been flying on some days, so there's no apparent reason why they shouldn't have mated.

We've had some welcome rain, and the weather is now decidedly autumnal. I'm just carrying on with the digging, with the aim of having more beds in cultivation next year. I'm not putting much in the ground at the moment, as the space will be needed for the crops my family really appreciates; sweet corn, tomatoes, and other tender veg.

I'm getting persistent migraine again, but I've managed to do a bit on the plot. I've dug over a nasty nettle patch, which should now become productive, and stated on a bad patch of ground elder. After last night's deluge, the ground is now satisfactorily damp again; it had been getting very dry, despite the monsoon earlier in the year.

None of the three hives I gave cells to are showing any sign of brood, which is a worry. One is nasty-tempered and probably queenless, while the others, both splits from those hives I bought, are good-tempered and quiet on the comb. I can only assume that those at least are queenright.

I got some last-minute leeks planted out the other day; hopefully they'll do something. i'm not planting out much apart from alliums though. I want to keep plenty of space for tender veg next summer, since that's what the family likes. Meanwhile I'm steadily getting the uncultivated beds knocked into shape. Despite the discouragements of the awful summer, I am at least in a good position to knock some more ground into shape before spring.

I've been pulling out the remains of some of the Great Mullein; it's a weed I tolerate for its dramatic, if too narrow, spikes of bloom. This year, for once, it wasn't devastated by mullein moth, and flourished correspondingly. I only want it down one side of the garden though, as it's too massive to be throwing up six-foot spires among dwarf plants. It's a biennial, and easily removed wherever it's unwelcome. Borage, which is grown commercially for starflower oil, is doing rather too well as always. It gets covered in bees, and I don't mind it as long as it's not smothering my crops. It's an annual, and once again, it's easily pulled out where it's not wanted. I just wish the veg. would do as well!

I'm slowly catching up with the hedge trimming. It's a horrible job, especially when I'm doing the tops of the hedges with a lumsy great thing that's not quite powerful enough, and keeps sticking. Once it's done though, i should be able to keep on top of it now.

The dry weather seems to be continuing merrily now that the holiday season is behind us! My butternut squashes are growing well at last, far too late to produce ripe fruit this year. The Cambridge Gage have mostly been eaten, and were excellent, and the Egremont Russet apples are falling. They need to be kept a while after this to become really sweet.

I've raised another batch of queen cells, and moved both the queens I got last spring into rather makeshift nuc boxes. Hopefully they'll come though the winter at the head of small colonies, to provide a reserve for next year. Three queenless colonies have been given cells. It's late in the season, but as long as the queens mate satisfactorily, and I feed them, they should be OK.

I don't normally feed bees, as a well-adapted strain should be able to store enough to get through any winter comfortably. I do it when there's a specific reason, and yesterday I gave them a gallon of syrup each, with 1/4 gallon for each of the two nucs.

Once again, good weather. I'll actually get something planted again at this rate. I'm looking forward to getting the plot back to normal, but it's taken me so long to get back to normal that it's taking forever.

One hive which I'd left queenless has produced what appears to be a good laying queen; I need to see the workers she produces to assess her better, and she's not really much good till she's survived the winter! She started laying very fast, which is a good sign; no problems getting that one mated. Apart from that, things went wrong. I put cells into a hive with a laying queen, hoping the bees would replace her with a new one; it usually works, but this time it didn't. I split a second hive, and gave both halves queen cells. The original queen moved back into the original hive, leaving a weak, queenless split, which I've now united with another hive. That left me with a decidedly nasty-tempered hive to deal with for the second time. I'm not happy, but I've got that queen out this time. The original hive is currently raising a second batch of queens. For the first time ever, I've got no honey at all, but I should have more hives going next year, at least.

The weather has, of course, turned foul again, it's really depressing. The plot's a real mess, and while I'm steadily making progress sorting it out, it's hard to keep myself motivated at the moment. The Cambridge Gage is cropping well, with small, green plums which put the shop ones to shame. There's a decent apple crop as well, the Egremont Russet id particularly good. The fruit are pretty small though, due to the lack of any June drop this year. I'd have done better to have thinned them. The bees look OK, with plenty of pollen going into the hives; I'll check them next weekend, to see whether there's any sign of the new queens laying.

The weather seems to be brightening up at last, not that there's much left to appreciate it. The squashes are sitting doiing nothing, and the floods wiped most other things out. I've just finished lifting the garlic; the actual cloves are fine, but some of the skins had rotted, and most of the stems. I won't be making plaits this year.

The walking onions produced single bulbs and small clumps, but they were grown from small bulbils. I think I'll do better planting the bulbs, along with the bigger bulbils. They're strange things, the bulbs are like shallots, and clusters of nulbils form at the tops of the stems, where you'd expect a flower. Come to that, garlic flowers I took off ended up trying to produce little clusters of bulbils.

I split the big beehive last week, and yesterday I took out some of the resulting queen cells (from the queenless half) and put them into the two bought-in hives. I split one of them, and gave cells to both halves. I had meant to split both, but didn't have enough cells. Previously, I've done this with swarm cells, which are nicely built, hang free, and are strong enough to handle comfortably. These were emergency cells, converted from worker cells when the bees picked the young larva to become a queen. The walls were thin, and they were difficult to cut out and difficult to handle without squashing them. Hopefully they'll hatch; each hive has two, to provide a backup.

The plot was flooded again on Friday; we've had over four inches of rain over the last few days, 90% of it on Friday. I did go down and check how things were, just before the stream broke its banks. I might as well have been standing under a waterfall.

I've split the big beehive, in order to raise queens. There are masses of drones, so I should get good mating. They got in a real mood with me yesterday; that's the second bad stinging I've had this summer. As far as the garden goes, this year's crops are pretty much a washout. It's so bad it's depressing, and on top of that I've overdone it doing the GCSE marking. I finished on Friday, just as I got to the point where I could no longer concentrate, and I was getting daily attacks of migraine, which are still happening.

Yesterday was our 12th wedding anniversary. We had people saying we shouldn't be together, and people trying to sabotage the wedding. The then minister from church wrote asking me not to go ahead as a Christian shouldn't marry a Muslim, and I had one hysterical fundamentalist ring me tup to say I was going to hell. But we're still together, and where are they?

The rain never stops, the spuds have got blight so the toms will soon follow, and the summer is fast turning into a disaster. All I can say is that my plans for the bees are working out, with one big colony churning out loads of drones, and two small ones which have no drones, but which can be split into two smaller colonies for queen raising. The early garlic is good, as are the elephants, though the maincrops, which I have yetto lift, are dying from rust. I've never seen it affect plants so badly.

The main thing now is to make sure I'm ready in good time for next year, since in this new job I don't have much time off at Easter, and no summer half term, so that's a vital coupls of weeks lost. Meanwhile, I'm still bogged down with GCSE marking; they've roped me in to do the Roman Catholic paper as well as my normal one. It's an irritant, not merely because its a horribly boring job which needs 100% concentration, but because the denominational answer is taken to be the correct one, and that's bound to annoy me. I do get the odd gem though. One kid answered 'What does catholic mean?' with 'It's posher and more elegant than the Church of England and snobs go there'. Obviously, whoever it was doesn't like their (Catholic) school.

I hate hybrid Italian bees! Hybrids between native Apis mellifera mellifera and imported Italian queens have a horrible tendency to sting. I've been building up my native hive, which is now getting massively strong, while the two I bought have been building up slowly, despite weekly removal of brood.

My native hive is still the best-tempered of the three despite its greater strength. One of the new ones is OK, but the other is getting nastier by the week. Yesterday I had a really good stinging from them, with bee after bee going up my arm, and bees all over my sleeve, stinging it like mad. I got two stings from bees inside my veil, when mostly ones that get in there think about nothing but escape. Not nice at all, I don't want bees like that. I've always avoided the 'space suit' type of bee gear; it ought to be unnecessary with only a few hives. The way to go is to avoid the nasty bees.

The crazy thing is that back in the 1920's, Brother Adam, the most influential UK beekeeper of his time, concluded that the native British bee was, firstly, extinct, and secondly, nasty-tempered. My experience, and that of others who keep them, is that they are far from extinct, and reliably good tempered. Unlike the unpredictable hybrids a lot of bigger beekeepers seem to go for.