mêl/honey
The bees of Beeview Farm are Feral. We give them somewhere to live but they're in charge of how they use it. They're free to organise their hives in whatever way they want and to deal with the challenges of life however they see fit, just like they'd been doing for millions of years before humans decided they needed to be 'managed'.
Honey is harvested in early spring (just before the main nectar flow starts) to ensure we only harvest honey the bees didn't need to get through the winter and we never harvest and replace honey with sugar syrup. This means we get less honey, but also stronger bees.
Harvested honey is crushed from the comb in an apple press and then super lightly filtered to make sure all the pollen and propolis and other hive goodies are still in it. The cloudier the better because we think honey should be eaten RAW.
wyau/eggs
Our chickens and ducks are a vital part of the farm ecosystem and we'd like them to be totally supported by the site eventually. We're not there yet (we still have to buy in food), but since working out how to use rush grass (scythed daily) and brackern (harvested in late winter and trampled in builders bags) we can now supply all their bedding from the site. They already graze thick pastures full of herbs (like comfrey and sorrel) and soft fruits (like raspberries and blackcurrants) to reduce their imported feed requirements and we are experimenting with duckweed factories (very high protein content), compost heaps (very high worm content) and woodlice farms (piles of rotting wood) to reduce imports even further. They're not totally self-sufficient, but we're getting there.
Beeview Farm chicken and duck eggs are available from Newport Wholefood Shop.
BIODIGESTER CONSTRUCTION KITS
We can supply kits for building your own biodigester system that include almost everything you might need except the IBC tanks (I'm afraid you're going to have to find those yourself). They include feed and waste pipes and fittings and all the right hole saws and uniseals.
We can supply everything else you might need as well, but some things depend on the type of IBC tanks involved and how far the biodigester is from where the gas will be used so we'll have to provide those seperately (it can get complicated).
PRICES - £110/Kit
They cost £100 if you come on a tour though, so you may as well come on a tour.
THE BIODIGESTER KIT INCLUDES:
Feed Pipe
Waste Pipe
Waste Pipe Fittings
Uniseals for Feed and Waste Pipes
Correct Hole Saws for each Uniseal size (+ Arbor)
IBC Tap Adaptor (for connecting the biodigester to the silo)
Gas Pipe Fittings (including for connecting to the hob)
Jubilees clips
NOT INCLUDED:
IBC Tanks (look on eBay)
Gas Pipe (depends how much you need)
Odd fittings for unusual IBC tanks (some are weird)
Insulation
THUNDERTRUNK (or $#!tbox)
THUNDERTRUNK composting toilets are low-tech, waterless toilet solutions for those with a desire (forced or otherwise) to turn their, err, “waste” into compost without having to do anything particularly unpleasant. Perfect for remote or off-grid situations, particularly if you don't particularly fancy having to empty buckets of humanure into an open compost heap, the thundertrunk is a simple, affordable and self-contained composting toilet that can be moved easily, filled copiously (185 litres) and then just left alone to do its own thing.
CURRENTLY OUT OF STOCK
BUCKET SHOWER
What’s that? You want to shower under a bucket? Well isn’t that a coincidence! We’ve only gone a made a shower hose that can be attached to a bucket (or anything else that can hold water and be suspended above you) for just that purpose. Please visit our ebid store for more information.
MOSTLYPUFFINS.COM
Pretty pictures from Pembrokeshire (mostly puffins) and beyond (almost no puffins) can be found at www.mostlypuffins.com. (NB - Matthew likes experimenting with his camera so don't expect many postcard shots. There are a few but the majority are either abstract or just plain weird. Some aren't even in focus for heaven's sake!)