Archive for the ‘Jenny Carr’ Category

General - Lingfield Honeybees

Colin, our Lingfield Point Bee Keeper

In a quiet corner in the Lingfield Allotments there is a hive of activity!  As you may already know we are very fortunate here at Lingfield Point to have our very own bees.  We have two strains of bee – and Italian and a strain all the way from New Zealand – we’re very continental!

Both hives have produced a decent amount of honey despite early set backs.  In September we extracted our fourth batch of honey and Jenny from Marchday was lucky enough to bee there!

“I was a little wary as Colin, our resident Lingfield Point Bee keeper had been stung on a number of occasions, so I donned the bee keeper suit and triple checked it for holes!”

“We start by smoking the bees, this calms them and makes them less aggressive.  Then, once the lid is off the hive, it’s time to remove the ‘supers’, these are the frames where the bees build up the hexagonal wax cells (comb) and where the honey gets stored.

“With a little shake and a brush for those stubborn bees, the supers are removed and put neatly into a storage box.  The bees are, of course, pretty grumpy about us taking their honey, so they are all around us and it feels like they are trying to get into our suits!  One manages to and poor Colin is stung on his hand – poor bee too, honeybees are the only bees that die after they sting.

“We then take the Supers into a clean and sterile room, which is kept nice and warm. The supers are then carefully placed into a honey extractor – this is a manual spinning machine, which requires a fair amount of time and patience to spin the honey out of the combs.

“The honey then has a little time to settle, so all the waxy bits from the comb can float to the top and can be skimmed off (this is re-used to feed the bees).  The honey is then put into jars. 

“In the end, our Lingfield honey bees produced about 25lbs (50 jars) of honey and with the hives now established, fingers crossed next year will be even better.

Yum!

Interesting facts about honey bees

  1. There are three types of bees in the hive – Queen, Worker and Drones.
  2. Queens can live for up to 5 years.
  3. Honeybees are the only insects that produce food for humans.
  4. Just a single hive contains approximately 40-45,000 bees.
  5. Bees can recognize individual human faces.
  6. The average worker bee produces about 1/12th teaspoon of honey in her lifetime.  A worker bee lives for about 6 weeks.
  7. A hive of bees will fly 90,000 miles, the equivalent of three orbits around the earth to collect 1 kg of honey.
  8. It takes one ounce of honey to fuel a bee’s flight around the world.
  9. A honey bee visits 50 to 100 flowers during a collection trip
  10. According to Albert Einstein, If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live
Bookmark and Share | Also posted in General, Lingfield Point, Marchday | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | +

Jenny Carr - Lunchtime strolls from Lingfield Point.

If you work at Lingfield Point and ever fancy a stroll or a jog during your lunch hour, there is a lovely route from Lingfield Point to the Whinnies, just cross the new road, turn right and keep walking!   The distance to the Whinnies nature reserve is about 5 miles there and back, but if you don’t have time to go that far, the walk along the bridle path is still very pretty, especially during summer.

For those who like something a little more energetic, there lots of good runs from Lingfield Point– log on to: http://www.trails.com/googlemap.aspx to find a route that suits you!

Bookmark and Share | Also posted in Lingfield Point | Tagged , , , , , | +

General - The Big Butterfly Count!

The British Butterfly Conservation has asked the public to spend 15 minutes counting butterflies from now until the 31 July.

Butterfly

Small Tortoiseshell at the HOME office

Butterflies are seen as a key indicator of the health of the countryside and researchers want to find out how this year’s hot, dry spring has affected their population.

The Marchday HOME team have already logged two regular visitors to our garden, the Green-veined White and the Small Tortoiseshell (pictured here on our Lavender).

You can also get involved, go to www.bigbutterflycount.org and log your sightings, whether it be on your lunch hour or at home.  There is a handy butterfly chart for you to download to make it even easier.  Enjoy!

Bookmark and Share | Also posted in General, Lingfield Point | Tagged , , , | +

General - Jenny of Marchday China Chartity Trek update

Day 2 – Jenny trekked through the Black Dragon Pools National Park with beautiful scenery. However this involved a lot of walking off the beaten track making the terrain hard going on the calf muscles. The hotel for night two was a very basic lodge with no hot water. Jenny commented after a long day of walking ” I can’t wait to wash my hair!”

Day 3 - ”The Best Day so Far!” reported Jenny as the trekked through the Gubeikou Gateway, an ancient part of the wall with amazing scenery and no tourists in sight. Staying at a different lodge this time with running hot water but poor drainage, Jenny finally managed to wash her hair but unfortunately also flooded her room commenting that her roommate was not impressed!

Good luck Jenny, keep it up!

Bookmark and Share | Also posted in General | +

General - Marchday’s Jenny China Charity Trek – Day One

Live update – Jenny left Darlington at 5pm on Friday April 16th and arrived in China on Sunday afternoon (morning in the UK). Travelling on the new Emirates Airbus Jenny said ” It was very nice but the landings made everyone reach for their sickbags including me it was realy awful!”

Day One – Due to high winds and sandstorms from the Gobi Desert the section of wall Jenny had been due to climb was closed therefore they had to climb a “harder route”. Jenny said it was farily touristy as it had been renovated but was a very steep five hour climb.

After a tiring first day and no blisters to report Jenny had earned her evening meal. She said “I’m pleased we are doing a lot of walking as the food is lovely and there is oodles of it!”

Bookmark and Share | Also posted in General | 1