We now have four ducks sitting on eggs, so fingers crossed I can at some point soon post pictures of Momma Duck and a crocodile of little ducklings. There is still one Skånegås sitting which is good – the success I have hatching goose eggs in an incubator is pitiful – anyone with any tips, you know where to send them

We also had some real excitement, when last week the swallows returned from their winter sojourn to South Africa. The event had been speculated upon for weeks and greatly anticipated. I am happy to announce they have returned. I know ‘One swallow doesn’t make a summer’ and if anyone knew what they were talking about it was Aristotle – but what about two? I’ve been trying to get pictures but they are proving to be far to elusive for me at the moment, though the hunt has produced a few bonus shots of other bird life [see below]

We’ve also collected the new bees from Fredrik and installed them in the paddock, they are settling well, they’ve been out on their orientation flights and we’re even busy yesterday during the rather British rainy bank holiday weather. If they are anything like as good as the colonies we got from Fredrik last year it should be a good and profitable harvest. Beekeeping is an ancient and a beloved [by me at least] form of agriculture. It is often considered merely as a minor supplemental agricultural activity, but because of its relevance to other phases of agriculture, it is way more important than most non beekeepers would expect. There are literally thousands of bee hives dotted all across Skåne whose uses include pollinating a wide variety of agricultural crops and the production of honey and its associated products. It has been estimated that one in every three mouthfuls of food is directly attributable to the activity of the honey bee. The pollination of our crops is the greatest contribution and without their services many of our crops would not produce fruit or set seed. Although other insects perform this service, honeybees are by far the most numerous and important pollinators. Agriculture is dependent on cultivated bees particularly since feral honey bee populations have been almost completely eliminated and native pollinating insects are in short supply

Several conditions have contributed to the decline of cultivated honeybees and even more so in feral colonies. There was a time when even beginning beekeepers could, without much difficulty, expect to produce strong colonies of bees. Not so anymore. Our bees, over the past ten to fifteen years, have been plagued with a whole series of bee problems that have contributed to their decline. The problems started with tracheal mite which decimated, some say wiped out the native British Black Honey Bee, Apis mellifera mellifea. Then along came the mite Varroa destructor and the viruses for which it is a vector. In the last couple of years the double spectres of Small Hive Beetle and Colony Collapse Disorder have cast yet another shadow across the beekeeping community.

Beekeeping has always been a vocation of detail. You had your knowledgeable and your not so learned beekeepers, both however in the past were able to have some success. The skilled beekeeper had strong colonies and the not so knowledgeable beekeeper had weaker colonies. However in the advent of these new insect and disease pests it is becoming increasingly more difficult to be successful. Beekeepers need to be more careful in managing their bees but even the skilled beekeepers can are being affected by conditions beyond their control. The newest problem - Colony Collapse Disorder [CCD] has gained considerable worldwide attention and generated countless column inches. Beekeepers around the world and particularly in the US reported problems with their hives. Colonies appear healthy and in a brief period of time simply collapse. The bees simply disappear, hence the name "disappearing disease." The causes of CCD are still unknown, however scientists have identified several pathogens that may be causing the problem and several possibilities like mobile phone signals have already been ruled out. To date there has been no suggestions of CCD being in Sweden, though if it follows the same patterns as tracheal mites and varroa it is only a matter of time.

Einstein is reputed to have predicted that if something eliminated bees from the planet mankind would inevitably perish. I do not know if this is true. If it is I can only hope he was wrong. Such an extreme position is truly alarming. Bees are disappearing for reasons we can’t explain, and a certified genius such as Einstein noted long ago that if all bees disappeared, we’d soon follow them into extinction. Whether the quote is genuine or not if the intent of it’s recent popularity it is to get some attention it’s certainly working. Did Einstein sagely foresee the environmental crisis we’re only just beginning to notice?