My beehive cake in top ten of the Great Omlet Bake Off

A few weeks ago when I saw on Omlet's Facebook page that they had launched the Great Omlet Bake Off I knew I had to enter for a number of reasons: I love the Great British Bake Off, I love baking and I love cake. Simple really. Also, as my bees live in an Omlet Beehaus I knew I'd have to make my beehive cake.

The tried and tested honey and lemon cake is delicious and although the honey is not from my bees sadly, it is local from a fellow Warwick and Leamington Spa beekeeper. I can't take any credit for the cake's shape (as that is all down to the tin) but I can take credit for the beating and baking and also the little marzipan bees with their flaked almond wings. I am up against some stiff competition but please vote for me using this link as I'd love to be crowned Great Omlet Baker 2013. 

Meanwhile, back at the Beehaus things are settling down for winter. Having tweeted that I have a bit of a problem with chalk brood, a lovely man over at Vita sent me a bottle of VitaFeed Green (above) free of charge. I mixed some of it in with the ambrosia (the jerry can in the background of the pic) I gave the bees last week. I'm hoping this will make them strong and healthy going into winter.

Remember what I said during one of my previous posts how the bees are relatively calm when I arrive and then they all start coming up to the top on en masse? Well, the pic above shows this. They aren't necessarily aggressive (although I did pick out a few stings from my gloves - good thing I wasn't wearing marigolds!) but I wouldn't exactly call them easy going. As discussed, this can be down to the queen, which I think I will need to replace in the spring. Sorry Queen Pippa - it looks like your beheading is imminent. 

The entrance to the Beehaus is till very busy and I have reduced it with the wasp guard. Talking of wasps, I read something really frightening on the Guardian's website earlier today - the Asian hornet which is not only fatal to bees but is fatal to humans too have killed 41 Chinese people in the past three months. Scary. Hope they don't make their way onto our island!

I am going to have one more look into the Beehaus before closing up for the winter - possibly this coming weekend but until then please vote for me :)