Spring ?!

Spring ?!
      My last post was about snow and today it seems like Spring has arrived - temperatures in the teens and warm sun, what a contrast. But in reality it is a bit too soon to predict the end of winter as last year taught us with the coldest blast arriving very late in the season and taking everyone by surprise. It was a glorious day however and warm enough to get the honey-bees out and about. They were flying back laden with yellow pollen which I guess is from the hazel catkins as very little else is in flower as yet. It is amazing how slightly longer days and a bit of sun can make such a difference and suddenly nature is waking up all over the wood. The bees belong to a local apiarist and we just give them a home in return for the occasional jar of honey. They have struggled a bit over recent years so I hope this will be a good year for them.
        I decided hard work was not called for today and spent three hours slowly conjuring another round log stack into existence. I have made a couple using Sweet Chestnut before today and rather like them to look at. I made this one out of Birch which is not the easiest to use as it a light wood and can roll off the stack. The secret is to make sure the logs lean in towards the middle all the way up the stack, filling the middle as you go to give stability. I decided to give a bit more strength by building around a pole driven into the ground, starting with an outline of Sweet Chestnut logs laid on their sides to form the starting circle and setting the right inward slope.
         It was very pleasant work....splitting the wood first and gradually raising the stack, with buzzards calling overhead and warm sun on my back. In some parts of Europe these are known as beehive stacks or Holzhausen - there are some great pictures of stacks in Lars Mytting's book called "Norwegian Wood". I don't think mine is a patch on any of the examples in this fine book but I am happy with it.

Beginnings, note the initial circle of logs making the base

Half way up with cross pieces inserted to keep the inward angle

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The finished beehive stack


The bees bringing back Hazel pollen

one of several buzzards overhead

Comments

  1. There is certainly a great deal to find out about this issue.
    I really like all the points you've made.

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