<a href="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/garys-beesjul19.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-5720" src="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/garys-beesjul19-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a>A weekend away with my friend and ex work colleague Gary and his wife Caroline. We spent Friday afternoon managing his bees. Gary has only been keeping bees for 2 years and was kind enough to donate a complete colony to me to get me started. He also started with one hive and now has two fully functional colonies with a small nucleus. A fourth hive didn't appear to have a queen so we took the brood box and using newspaper as a screen we placed it on top of his Hive 2. The idea is to poke a few holes in the newspaper and slowly the "foreign" bees are accepted and adopted by Hive 2 bees. This unification can take up to a week and isn't always successful in which case the "foreign" bees will be attacked and killed.

<a href="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/broughton-castlejul19.jpg"><img class="alignleft wp-image-5723" src="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/broughton-castlejul19-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="233" height="175" /></a>On Saturday morning Gary and I went for a walk around the grounds of Broughton Castle. It was untouched by the Civil War and the moat is completely in tact. On the walk we came across several beehives that Gary had assisted with a month or so ago. They stood within a stone compound and we stood outside watching them flying in and out for about 20 minutes. Suddenly a bee got caught in Gary's hair and after I flicked it out we became the centre of attention for several bees, one of which stung me above my eyebrow. We made ourselves scarce with several bees in pursuit. Gary managed to get the sting out because it continues to pump sting even after it is detached from the bee. My first sting since becoming a beekeeper and it wasn't one of my bees. The sting didn't last long and there wasn't any swelling so I'm not allergic - good news.

<a href="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/blenheim-rose-theatrejul19.jpg"><img class="alignright wp-image-5722" src="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/blenheim-rose-theatrejul19-200x150.jpg" alt="" width="248" height="186" /></a>On Saturday evening we went to Blenheim Palace to see A Midsummer Night's Dream in a "pop up" Rose theatre.
The food shops in the "village" outside the theatre were limited in choice and the quality was quite bland. Like all venues with a captive audience they can charge what they like. Here a small ice cream tub was £3.80, which was extortionate.

<a href="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Midsummer-Blenheimjul19.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-5721 alignleft" src="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Midsummer-Blenheimjul19-300x240.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="240" /></a>The play itself was brilliant. We had excellent seats and front of stage. The "mechanicals" who perform the play within the play were superb. The setting of the imps and fairies was jaw dropping and the only criticism I might put forward was that Titania and Oberon went through a gender swap which didn't do anything for the play and the fact that the female Oberon was heavily pregnant made the gender change even more bizarre.