A Good Start Made

This last week of beautiful weather has given us a good start on the seasons hay making.

Phil has mowed every morning from Saturday 28th May until Friday 3rd June. The cut grass has been spread and rowed daily, taking about 3.5 days to dry. The first hay was bought in on Tuesday 31st, with more bought in each day since then. Rain was forecast for today (Sunday 5th) so Phil finished mowing on Friday.

Yesterday afternoon and evening we were concentrating on getting the finished hay into the barn and anything that was not cured up onto hay racks  to weather the rain.

The afternoons rack building was interrupted by the arrival of a bee swarm, which had decided that some Warré bee boxes left by the barn were the perfect home for them. When such a spectacle presents it’s self, there is nothing to be done but stop and watch.

Swarming bees are laden with honey making them unagressive. They are concentrating on the task in hand so hard that they virtually ignore you. This means you can safely get quite close to the action. The noise is incredible!

Despite heavy skies the threatened rain never materialised. We could have mowed on a few days longer but are still pleased with the good start made on the winter hay store.