I have just completed a new website for Riverbank Bed and Breakfast. Please take a look and let me know what you think.

Normally for this type of site I would use Rapidweaver, a web development program for my iMac. This time I produced the site directly in WordPress.  WordPress seems to be moving away from the simple blog program it was originally designed to be and is quickly becoming a sophisticated website development and publishing program.

With the plugins now available it is possible to produce a very professional looking website for free (other than the host provider charges and the domain name).

If you are happy to spend a small amount of money on your website  then very versatile and feature rich themes can be purchased. With the vast online WordPress community nearly every question you might have will have already been answered.

The days when you needed to know program codes and language  or invest in an expensive website development program are over. If you want a good professional website which is simple and stright forward to produce then look no further than WordPress.

The latest website for Riverbank B & B I have produces is an example of what can be accomplished with a few hours work.

For a while now I have been working  on the Rapley family tree which I have managed to get back to 1595.  (click here for the tree)

My aunt and a cousin started the tree many years ago.   They handed it over by my father who worked on it for several years before passing it on to me.

I recently joined a project  on www.familytreedna.com which is researching the Y-DNA links in the Rapley family.  This was started by a Rapley in the USA who was trying to establish their family links back to the UK. From the  records it seems probable that I should have been related to them and it would confirm the vague records. To our surprise however the Y-DNA tests did not show a family link.

The only way this can happen is if there was an unrecorded adoption probably sometime in the 19^th century.  To confirm this we need more Rapleys to join the project  as there are not  enough to see where the break is.

So if you are a Rapley and are interested in the family tree and the origins of the Rapley family please consider joining the project.  Click here for details

If you have any questions please contact me

So What is Y-DNA Testing? (Taken from MyFTDNA)

• You can discover the origin of your paternal line with a Y-DNA test
• Connect with genetic cousins and uncover the deep ancestral origin of your direct paternal line (your father, your father’s father, etc.) though Y-DNA testing. This is available for males only.
• Results Include:
• genetic matches, paternal ancestral origins, paternal haplogroup, haplogroup migration map, haplogroup frequency map, and test results certificate. Family Tree DNA will continue to update you about new matches and other information regarding your result.

What Level of Y-DNA Should I Test?

The level of Y-DNA testing you choose determines how closely you are related to your matches. The more markers you test and match, the more closely related you are to the person you match.

There is a discount when you join a Surname Project!

Before placing an order, search for the Rapley Surname Project, which will entitle you to a reduced price when you order a test kit as a member of the Project.

I do hope you will consider joining and help with furthering the Rapley family tree project for now and future generations of Rapleys.

Looking back it has been a long time since my last post where has the time gone? I have not touched my latest book for months either! I really must knuckle down and stop being distracted by life.

Anyway Late last year I ordered two Apis M.M. queen bees (Northern Europe/British Bees). One to re-queen my weak hive and the other to do a split from my strong hive which also has an A.M.M queen. (The weak hive had an Italian mongrel queen).

Unfortunately the weak hive despite having plenty of stores did not make it through the winter it was very sad. I could not see a reason for the demise so I assume the weak queen died and they just lost the will to live.

Anyway the strong hive with the A.M.M queen built up quickly. It is surprising when her girls fly it can be cold wet and windy and there is still a queue at the hive entrance. Nothing the like the Italian strain which would be well clustered in such weather!

I kept my order for two queens open as I figured I could easily take two splits from my remaining hive without any problem.  Due to bad weather the delivery was postponed several times, as the queens had not mated. When I finally received notice that they had been posted to me the weather forecast could not have been worst rain cold and gales It was the last week of May for havens sake!

On the Friday the day before the queens were due to arrive there was a break in the clouds sufficient for me to split of six frames from the strong hive and install them either end of one of my empty Horizontal Top Bar Hives.  I had the hive reversed with the main entrances blocked of and the single entrances either end also blocked off.  I used two feeder follower boards and a single follower board in the middle of the hive so three follower boards isolated the splits.

One of my Horizontal Topbar Hives reversed to take two splits

The following day when the queens arrived it was dreadful weather so I gave them some water by smearing a wet finger over their cage and put them in a cool quiet place in a cupboard drawer.

The next day was little better however I did get a break in the constant rain so I dropped the queens into their respective hives the cage hanging from a top bar on a short wire.  The entrances I half opened with a cut cork.

Reduced entrance for the hive so it is easy for the small split to defend

It was another four days before there was another break in the weather. I just lifted the topbars with the queen cages to check if they had been released. All was OK so I removed the empty cages topped up the feed in both sections and left them to it.

Several days later I noticed one side was quiet while the other was busy with bees coming and going. I checked the quiet hive and found the bees lethargic and queenless. They had either rejected her or something had befallen her.

I stapled some newspaper over my frame follower I had built for combining bees and slid the queenless ones up to the busy section of the hive with the newspaper follower separating them.

A couple of days later I checked and the bees had shredded the newspaper and all seemed calm and happy. So despite it being the coldest and wettest June since records began over two hundred years ago I have at least managed one successful split. I do wonder if I had been able to manage things a bit better rather than having to hurriedly do things between breaks in the torrential rain whether I would have had 100% success rate. Oh well I will never know but at least I have replaced my winter failure.

Bees Foraging From My New Hive