Bad Buzzzzz

O this is bad, this is wax moth damage. As you can see they have eaten wax and made tunnels.


This hive was very weak. It went queen less for several weeks and had few bees and no brood. I added a queen and some extra bees but it seems it was not enough to hold off the pest. I will sanitize this hive and frames ad reuse in the spring.

On a happier note, some of the white rocks are laying, I think, here's a pic of one of them, she posed nicely for the camera.

Always something to do

The babies are growing bigger everyday, as you can see. They are now eating about 5 lbs of feed a day for the 25 of them. They have discovered that they like pumpkin, while the adults seem to not eat it, they babies devour it. Yellow squash and zucenni is also high on there list of favorites.

I've recently added some new concrete pads for the bee hives. I didn't like the leaning block foundations so i poured some larger pads. 1 pad will hold the block for 1 hive so it will be more level then before and more stable. The bees get lost if you move the hive a Short distance like this so I move it a foot or so every 2 days. This way they can find there way home and soon the hives will be on new foundations.

the big buzz

Well hello again, It's been a while. The bee story continues. About a month again I sold some frames to a friend to expand some hives and noticed 1 hive was looking a bit weak. I moved it to a smaller box and waited a week to see what was going on. That's the small hive on the right.

After a week i opened it up and looked it over real good and could see no queen. Without a queen the hive will die, bit i did notice some larva, so i decided to wait and see if the larva were capped as brood or drones.

After another week i opened it up and saw all capped drone brood. Bummer! While i was in up to my elbows I opened up the other weak hive, no queen, BUMMER! Time to order some queens if I could find any.

The queens arrived on a Thursday afternoon so i watered them and left them on the kitchen counter for the night. The next morning I suited up and jumped in with both feet for a major queen replacement project. The small white hive went with no problems so i tackled the big hive. Second on the left with the maroon hive on top. I added a queen to that hive and moved some frames around to the small maroon hive. I added the queen in there and i was done. Now to wait.

Today I opened the hives to see what progress i was making. the small hive has accepted the queen and got her released from the shipping crate. So far so good. The maroon hive was looking good also, queen was out and everyone was happy. very good. The third hive the big one has also released there queen and all are happy. Woohoo 3 for 3, this is very good.

In case your wandering why the hives are stacked up like they are, the maroon hive was the weakest and by placing it on top of another hive, the workers will keep both hives working and healthy. So now i need to keep them all alive throw the winter so maybe i can get some honey this next spring, isn't this so much fun?

Fall activities

So, things are going slow this fall. Almost no eggs thanks to the girls going on a feather strike. As you can see this girls has given up her feathers for the cause and is slowly growing them back. Of course everyone should know this is a molt and when they molt almost no eggs are produced. Good thing I don't eat eggs everyday!

I started the experimental fall garden, you can see the beans and corn comeing up. I also have some pumpkin and cabbage and broculli and carrots. Potatos soon to get started. I don't know if any crop will be made but I planted anyway. I worry most about the pumpkin as i don't think it will take much of a cold snap. We shall see.

To help compinsate for the molt, the girls get an extra snack in the afternoon. This is corn supplied by some friends and the are hoovering it up. You can also see the size of the babies, they are the white ones that came this spring. They should be laying soon and the egg count will go up, i hope!

all new again

This little guy is a few days old and was hatched by the same mommy that raised all the post office babies. Another new chickens fun fun.

A garden update: everything drowned. We had 28 inches of rain in 5 weeks and the garden did not like it. Even the peach trees died, they couldn't handle that much rain. So, I'm preparing to start over for the fall.

On a side note: it rained bees today. It seems, one hive swarmed and settled in a small pine tree. I hit the pine tree with the tractor, completely by accident, and bees rained from the sky. For a few minuets is was exciting. I tried to get them out of the tree by hitting the branch they were on, no go. I cut the limb off, it pivoted on the last piece of bark and the entire swarm hit me in the side, woohoo. they moved then to another tree. this time with a friends help, i got the ladder under the swarm and set the hive body on the top. Then I pulled the limb over the box and shook the bees into the box. I left it there for a while to see if i had the queen or if they would move again. It seems after a few hours they were content to stay in the box and I moved it to the row of hives. That makes 4 hives now, fun fun fun.

Growing chicklets

Well, Sorry I haven't sent any updates in a while, it's been crazy. First, we had 18 inches of rain in a week and a half. There was so much water standing around that the chickens were building stilts. You would think a bird that can fly would have better balance but those chickens trying to walk on stilts was a sight. Also, not to be outdone but the chickens ingenuity, the squirrels built some canoes to get from tree to tree. what next eh. As you can see the chicklets are getting bigger. They go all over now. We had several incidents in the last 2 weeks and 2 adult hens were lost. One broke her neck and the other was a predator. A hawk got one of the chicklets also. the next day we heard a commotion and checked and the sharp shined hawk had a chicklet pinned on the ground. I ran hollering and Ginger went running and barking at the hawk and he decided that it was better to leave then face an angry Ginger. He flew up on a branch to see if we would go away. After a bit he decided we were not going any where he flew off and Ginger promptly went roaring and barking after it. I didn't know she could run that fast but she wanted a piece of that hawk.The bees are doing fine as well. They didn't like all the ran and rented movies all week. I don't know were they got the dvd player but they had a party in the hive 24/7. After it dried up for a day they were back to work gathering nectar and pollen. I tried to get a picture of the pollen laden bees but they all arrived before I got the camera. When you see them landing tail heavy they are loaded with nectar, the hungry ones fly more level.

Buuzzzz about the farm

The bee hive arrived today, how very exciting. They were a little irritated when they arrived and were untaped, yes, the openings were duck taped shut for transit, and upon release they were buzzing about.As you can see they have settled down some and were out looking for food already. I added some clay under the hive because this area is a little wet when we get a lot of rain.
And not to be upstaged, big mommie had the babies out most of the day. Here if you look in the brush on the right you can see some of the chicklets napping while mommie looks for food.

All in all a very exciting day. Woo Hoo