The Woodlands.co.uk Blog
Basic Beekeeping – Getting Started
A practical guide to getting started from beekeeper, Paul Hirons:-
Getting started
The best time to take up beekeeping is in the Spring. Bees will have been in a cluster all winter and in late March or early April they will start to emerge. They may be about much earlier if the temperature isn’t too cold; they have been known to pop out for cleansing flights all through the winter. In Spring the fruit trees and flowers in bloom will supply the new colony with sufficient nectar and pollen to encourage the queen to start laying. Read more…
Log fires and stoves – do we have to use hardwoods?
Hardwoods are the traditional choice for log-burning stoves and fires but increasingly people are seeing the advantages of burning softwoods. Read more…
Wood for Fuel
A wood fuel theme to the blog this week … Useful advice from Gillian Alker of the Forestry Commission on using and producing wood for fuel in two video clips by Woodlands TV. In the first, “Wood for Fuel”, she discusses different types: logs, wood chips and pellets, and seasoning wood. In the second, ”Grants for Wood Burning”, Gillian gives advice on grants, transportation and smokeless zones. Read more…
Caught knapping – shaping flint
Flint knapping is a method of shaping flint – a type of hard mineral quartz – by striking it repetitively to knock off flakes. Flint knapping can be used to produce stones for construction work or decoration. However, it was originally used to create tools and weapons. The word ‘flint knapping’ derives from the Dutch word ‘to knock’ and the process dates back to the Stone Age. Read more…
Sparrowhawks – at home in the South-West
Much has been made of the RSPB’s magnificent programme to reintroduce the Red Kite in Wales and many areas of England in recent years.
Their hugely successful efforts have been widely publicised, but over the same period the recovery in the numbers of another British bird of prey has been equally, if not more impressive, especially since the species has achieved this remarkable renaissance with just one vital piece of human intervention. Read more…
Woodland Courses 2010 Pt 1
There’s a bumper crop this year, so this is just a very small selection of courses up to June that caught our eye. Check on websites such as Woodlots , Small Woodland Owners Group and the Small Woods Association magazine for more. If you have been on any courses that you would recommend, or run some yourself, why not share it with others by putting a comment in the box below. And don’t forget that Woodlands.co.uk now includes £300 towards the cost of courses and training as part of its new woodland owner package. Find out more at Free Courses for Woodland Purchasers. Read more…
Watch Trug Making
Watch a modern South Down trug being made in this WoodlandsTV video clip. The Cuckmere Trug Company also make the famous Royal Sussex Traditional Trug from sweet chestnut and cricket bat willow, as well as many other types of trug. Read more…
The Woodlands Xmas Quiz 2009 – The Answers!
Congratulations to Jill Swan of Whitstable, Mr and Mrs Preece of Worcester, Pete Betts of Brighton and Graham Hood of London. Your very special Woodlands.co.uk wooden USB sticks are on their way to you! Read more…