Bee Swarm

Well, late last week our bees decided to break off some to begin a new colony (swarm) and we weren't really prepared.

And now we know that Steven definitely is not allergic to bee stings.

When a hive population starts to grow beyond the capacity of your hive box, bees will choose to raise up a new queen, and the new queen and a portion of the bees will break off (swarm out) to go find a new place to live. It is bee population control.

It is also a great way to get a new hive. If you are prepared, have another hive ready, you can help them with the move, or you can capture them after they swarm and 'show' them their new home.

We weren't prepared for them to swarm because when we checked them in April, the hive numbers seemed small. They must have had a very good spring.

They swarmed last week - gathered first in a tree just a few feet from the hive, but very high up in a locust tree. This is where Steven first saw them. Thinking perhaps he could just drop the swarm in temporary box, he got out the extension ladder, extended it all the way out (it still didn't reach the swarm). And prepared to climb to get 'his bees."

He chose, for some yet unknown reason (probably the heat) to not wear any bee gear. At all. Gloves, mask, suit, etc. Nada. After all, we've had bees two years and he hadn't yet been stung even once. They seemed very cooperative in our little hive.

Well he made it up the tree (he can climb better than a monkey) and got to the swarm. Snipped off the branch to drop the swarm into the big bucket he had taken up to capture it. That's when the trouble started.

After the bees began physically protesting all over his face and upper body, his attempts to put the lid on the bucket failed. So he simply dropped the bucket (bees and all) to the ground; (it only stunned them); jumped to the ground, and went to the house. Went out later to retrieve his glasses, his bucket, his ladder, and his dignity. LOL Bees had long since found some other place to go hang out.

He picked stingers out of his skin most of that day. Next day he ran a low-grade fever (probably from the sheer number of stings) and felt pretty crummy. Day after that he broke out in a red rash all over. But the following day all was back to normal. His body successful in warding off the attack.

So the swarm was missed this time. Learning experience for next time. Would be nice to capture a swarm and put a new hive out closer to the orchard.

I also told his grandmother that I need to buy her a video camera for any future episodes like this. I would love to have seen this one in replay.

The List

On our home computer, we have a Microsoft Word document that opens every time we boot up. I purposefully saved the file into startup for just that reason. As soon as we turn on the computer, before we get sidetracked by Facebook and forums and other peoples' wonderful blogs -- we see our farm "to do" list.

The List has morphed some over time, but here is what I like best about it: nothing ever falls off the list. Originally it was a simple reminder list of some things that needed doing. To that we sporadically added some almost wish-list types of things that need to be done, but are bigger and need more money. Fifteen items, then 20, then more... but early on, I set the list standard by deciding to never remove items from the list. When we accomplish a listed task, we simply use the strikethrough font to show it as done.

Why is this important? Because work on a farm is never done. And sometimes you can get very overwhelmed with the feeling of "so much to do!" that you forget to step back for a moment and see how far you have come, and how much really has been accomplished.

After awhile, the list was a random jumble of strike-through lines and non-striked, so I began making the "to do" ones in red font, and the completed, striked-through in black. This helped us see at a glance what the possibilities were for the day.

The List has big projects and small ones. Ones that will take minutes and ones that will take months. "Mulching the potato patch" to "building a new lean-to shed".

Currently, there is around 170 items on the list - only about 30 or so are in red. This makes me feel good. I can look at not only what lies ahead, and the potential, but also how far we've come.

May photos

This past weekend one of our Iowa Blue hens that has been setting hatched out a few chicks. This was a breeding-cross that Steven specifically planned for certain traits he wants in the new chicks. He will keep the ones that meet the criteria he has in mind, and sell the others:

Meanwhile, over in the duck pen, mama ducks eggs are due to hatch today. But nest-sharing kittens keep eating up her food (who knew cats would eat grain?) and playing right in front of mama duck. We keep moving them; they keep coming back into the pen.

But can you get upset with kittens that are just so darn cute?

Our goats and other batch of ducklings are also doing well.

Under the watchful eyes of our guardians, Bella and Lilly

and our garden is doing well -- we have receive sizable amounts of rain this week for it

(Dear God, you can stop the rain for a few days now, please.
We thank you for your answer to our prayers for rain when it was so dry)

This was across the west sky this morning as the sun rose on the east horizon and the rest of the sky was drenched with rain.

Birds of a Feather...

So we had a very peculiar thing happen on the farm this week.

For several weeks, a mama duck has been setting on a nest inside the secure duck pen -- a nest Steven created out of a half-drum-barrel. Her eggs are about ready to hatch into little ducklings sometime next week.

Over the past few weeks, we have had something on the farm stalking and killing baby kittens at night (most of our cats are somewhat feral barn cats, used only for rodent control, so that is not necessarily a big loss). However, our very favorite and best cat, Peggy Sue, had her very healthy kittens under the wheelbarrow in the garden.

Sometime over the weekend, though, apparently something spooked Peggy Sue into thinking her kittens were in danger - so she move them to the most secure place this intelligent cat could find -- into the duck nest!

Now understand, Peggy Sue is also our best "hunter-cat" - and we often have to watch her away from any baby chicks and ducks on the place. So who knows what is going to happen next week when Mama duck's eggs start to pip out? We have tried to convince Peggy Sue to move her babies to other locations, but she consistently moves them back.

What is baffling to me is how she got Mama Duck to allow her to "nest" next to her. Mama Duck won't even let us get within three feet of her nest without having a fit.

We should have a very interesting time next week! :)

(you can click on the photo to see it larger)

Spring planting and blooming

I haven't had much time to post any news on all the things keeping us busy (and there is LOTS) - so for a quick post, I will upload several recent photos of spring at the farm. In the meantime, just know we are always somewhere planting, mowing, cleaning, painting, working -- and waiting on rain!

My sister holding one of our new baby goats - this one is a real cutie!

Uncle Paul and Steven working on the tractor's starter.

I love the crabapple tree in full bloom. It is a glorious display!

The goats are loving the spring grasses.

Fruit trees are blooming! (this is an old pear tree)

We put a new top box on the beehive and checked on the bees.

The currant bushes all bloomed, and smelled wonderfully spicy!

Steven working in the greenhouse. Here he is starting slips of arborvitae
so he can plant a windbreak of them north of the house.

Hope you are having a wonderful spring!

New Goats

We made a trip about a week ago up to the Emporia area to take a look at several goats a nice man up there had posted for sale. Some of his stock was from the Kensing Spanish line, and Steven had read quite a bit about that breed, and had thought about incorporating some of that blood line in his current Boer herd.

However, after seeing the Spanish goats, he was surprised at how small in size that breed is, so he decided to not purchase the ones with Spanish blood. But while there, he did see a couple of mixed-breed girls he felt would make good additions to our herd. (probably Kiko and other blood lines) Plus, there was a good chance they were already bred, and that made the price more than reasonable.

Well, yesterday one of the two does had her kid! Steven said he could tell all day she was going into labor because she kept separating herself from the rest of the herd, and calling out. She gave birth to a very cute little white w/red splotches kid. The Mama is very shy and skittish, so we didn't get close enough yesterday to determine if the new baby is male or female - Steven will probably let me know that today. Did get her rounded up into the smaller pen and barn, so she can have her own space for awhile.

The other doe we bought will probably also kid soon.

Sorry for the poor quality of the photo - it was taken with my cell phone very late in the evening, with limited lighting in the barn.

(Addendum! -- Steven just called to tell me that the other doe had her babies this morning - twins. Gender not yet determined. One is "mostly black" and the other is "colored like a Boer but with a black head". And he has determined that this baby shown above, born yesterday, is a female.) :)

First seeds in the ground!

Yay! There is almost no better feeling than churning up the soil in the spring, smelling the newness of it, seeing the dark, richness that reminds me of ground coffee. We anticipate all winter long for the opportunity to do this, and finally this weekend we could!

While we got plenty hot and sweaty getting the garden cleaned up, tilled and ready, sticking a thermometer in the ground said the soil was still only 49 degrees -- too cold for much to germinate yet. Even so, we put in our onion sets and planted peas -- Steven will get the lettuce planted later this week, but at least our garden season is off and running!


(not to distract any from the wonderful plants Steven has already started indoors under his grow lights -- but it isn't the same as when we break garden ground).

There was a elm tree, about 20 years old or so, that had been taking over the west edge of the garden, so Steven girdled it a couple years ago to kill it; and this weekend, we took it down, as well. We left enough of the stump to make a nice resting stool for the gardener. It was really very pretty wood, for elm.

The cut is slightly darker on the one side because I began the cut with my chain saw, but ended up finishing most of the cut through with our two-man cross cut saw, by hand, to make it smoother and more level.

(sorry these photos aren't all that great - took most of them with my phone rather than run back inside and get a camera!)