Trumpington Community Orchard

Bees keeping cool on the outside of the Community Orchard observation hive

With the help of corporate volunteer teams from Astra Zeneca and Hayes, the Orchard is now looking neat and trim with the resplendent wildflower meadow being enjoyed by many more butterflies than human visitors. We have again had an infestation of ermine moth webs and, although the trees look a little sad, we will have a fair number of apples and some quince and medlar too.

Thanks to our usual quarterly maintenance session volunteers, Alison and Sabine, we have given the fruit trees a good prune, which will give us a better harvest next year. We still haven’t figured out why some trees have little or no fruit, as there are plenty of heritage variety apple trees as well as abundant fruit in the hedgerow trees, so cross-pollination should not be an issue.

The observational beehive has been fully colonised by a wild swarm since early January and the bee colony was large enough to give rise to a daughter swarm in mid-spring. The original idea was to clean out and possibly replace the hive, so the entry holes were closed off in the winter when the last colony left, but the new wild swarm managed to enter through the gaps between the sides and the roof!

However, the plan is still to replace the current structure, improved designs and funding permitting, as the wooden frame is falling apart and the design is not really suited to repeated opening for school visits, which was one of the original ideas behind installing the observational beehive. Any suggestions or examples of a more robust design or materials for a replacement would be very welcome.

We are very pleased that our amateur efforts at rodent protection seem to have thwarted the colonisation efforts of our delinquent grey squirrel, and the swift tower continues to be fully populated by the local sparrows. Most importantly, our resident swift visitors returned and there were at least seven nesting pairs by early May. As before, the swifts and sparrows shared the tiny boxes and again had fledglings at the same time.

The Orchard team attended the 10th anniversary celebration of the Cambridge Conservation Institute at the David Attenborough building, where the star of the show was the live feed from their swift box, though with only a single nesting pair. The ornithology experts were surprised to hear of our communal nesting behaviour, with their prediction being that the swifts would evict the sparrows. It does seem that humans could learn a lot about peaceful co-existence from our local birds!

We had a small Midsummer party to remember and celebrate the life of one of the Community Orchard founders, Joanna Crosby, and hope to plant a heritage sapling memorial tree later in the year.

We wish you all a happy and relaxing summer and hope you continue to enjoy the Orchard over the summer holidays.

The next Orchard maintenance session is on Sunday 13 September. As always, please dress in weatherproof clothing and footwear and we will provide gloves and necessary tools.

Contact us: trumpingtonorchard@yahoo.co.uk. Visit trumpingtonorchard.org or call Susanna on 07722 568020. Hope to see you soon!