Trees and bees

Most literature advises to never prune more than 25%. So if a tree has 4 branches, cut 1 off, easy!

On a crisp winter's afternoon, Tomasz and Craig provided some insight on fruit tree pruning. Much discussion took place: how light to prune: when to prune hard: should you ever prune hard and why do we even need to prune? We may never answer these questions but most important is to prune with confidence. Many twigs were left behind for the birds and an odd limb was lost.

Craig demonstrates pruning with confidence.

Roisin 'tree whisperer' provides gentle encouragement to apple tree before the big chop.

Hmmm, better ask the wife for advice on this one...

 The Belfast Beekeepers came along and provided some very interesting facts about the bees at MCA. Each hive has approximately 40,000 bees so overall there are about 500,000 bees on our wee allotment site! The beekeeper assured us that regarding safety of children (and adults) we are perfectly safe as long as we keep our distance from the hives. The bees are defensive of their hives so stay away from this area. If you are keen to help bees we were advised to plant nectar rich plants for the bumble bees and other pollinators as the honey bees are doing well. 

We were all buzzing with excitement from the bee talk!