Water cooler chat.

"What did the carrot say to the wheat? Lettuce rest, I'm feeling beet."

"Gorillarun Warfare."

"I see a tongue and some ears??"

"My milkshake brings all the dogs to the yard."

"Ye Royal Waterin Hole."

"From Ivy Weeds, to Minimal Mulch."

"What a Petunia."

The pitchfork and wheel are original to the house.

The backside.

"Corn Fail."

"Doe, Rae, Mee."

"Consider the Lillies."

Indietoo likes her picture taken.......closely that is.

Harlem not so much a fan of papparazzi.

Pushing me away.

A visitor

A wonderful pollenator.

Lettuces ready to roll

Cabbage patch

!

The garden from roadside and the pad where the farm tent will sit on

"Bee Motivation."

Difference between comb styles.  the white comb is from the Buckfast (my first bee's) and the dark gold is from my newest hive The Carniolan's

Sunny side up

"Ohhh Honey! It looks like we have new neighbors!"

Here is some video of the new hive installed.  I'm having some trouble uploading the video of the actual installtion process but I'll explain a little of what went on.

A nuc hive as explained by wiki;

The nuc box, also called a nuc, is a smaller version of a normal beehive, designed to hold fewer frames. The nuc box is smaller because it is intended to contain a smaller number of honeybees, and a smaller space makes it easier for the bees to control the temperature and humidity of the colony, which is vital for brood rearing. When using a Langstroth hive,(the hive you see in my pictures) a nuc is created by pulling  five frames from an existing colony. These frames and the nurse bees clinging to them form the basis for the nuc colony.

The nuc that I received is different from the first set of bee's that I got, in that, the nuc is five frames full of bee's, honey, brood in all stages, and a queen that had been introduced.  The first set of bee's (to remind you) was a set of packaged bee's.  Meaning they were delivered by mail, in a screened box, with no comb, brood, or honey.  The queen is with them but not introduced until I install her as well.

I take those five frames full of bee's, combs, honey, and brood and put those frames into the hive box.  Each hive box contains a total of five frames. So the bee's go from a small nuc box to a standard hive box.  Its that simple. Take the frames- put them into new box.

The difference with the nuc is that the bee's have the ability to build up, both in numbers, and comb rather quickly because they don't have to concentrate first and formost in building comb.  They already come with comb so their concentration can be directed in raising the brood and collecting nectar.  Since the brood comes in all stages the colony will build up rather quickly.   In my first set of bee's, the packaged ones, in coming with no brood, they have to work their tails off building comb for the brood and then wait a total of three weeks for the brood to be born.  They have a tough time and I am so impressed by their strength.

The reason why I got two different kinds of bee's installations is just to see what the difference is in colony abilities.  In the following year I plan on getting five more hives, so I would like to see if I should get all nucs or all packaged bee's next year.

All this video is of after the installtion.  The nuc box is leaning up against the hive box because bee's like to travel upwards.  What you can't see in the video is that there are a group of bee's with their behinds in the air fanning their wings.  This is to signal to the other bee's that the queen is inside and that they should come on into their new home.  By fanning their wings like that they release a pheremone that the other bee's smell.  

A question that alot of people ask is :  "Are the bee's gonna get confuse and go into each others homes?" The answer is no.  These two bee's are different races. (yes bee's have races just like we do:) ) And although they are different races they will not fight or confuse each others house.  It would be just like you coming home from work and walking into your neighbors house and making dinner. You just wouldn't do it. It doesn't smell like your house, look like your house, or have all  your belongings in it- I mean its not even your kids in the house!  Another cool fact is that bee's enjoy having hives next to each other.  It seems that production is higher when beehives are paired off........The more I learn about them the more I see God:)

Hope you enjoy this and as always ask ?'s away!

Glory Downs Farm: A young man showed up to work for the old beekeepe...

Happ'nin's

So alot has been happening on "the farm!"  We legally became legal and officially a business! Our long awaited milling had arrived, so that we can expand our driveway and make a pad for the stand to sit on. We have some fine feathered female additions to the family- 15 in fact. And the second nucleus hive arrived!  Here are some videos!




This here chicken video is....welll.....artistic.

Rainy day wrestlin- check out Indie's McFlip.

David cutting the driveway!  

A young man showed up to work for the old beekeeper. First day on the job. The beekeeper says, "Paint all those bee hives." The young man looks at all that work and says, "You don't seem to realize - I have a College Education." The old beekeeper thinks for a minute and says, "I'm sorry. I'll show you how to hold the paint brush."

So today was nice enough to overhaul the bee's episode of artistic creation.  I could go into immense detail on what and why and how they did this but I'll keep it simple and let the videos and pics do most of the 'splainin.

The comb was built for both good and bad purposes.  The good news is that the bee's are feeling like progress is being made and they are ready for more space.  What the little buggers didn't know is that they had some empty frames that were not full of drawn honey comb so I rearranged the furniture a little to manipulate them into working those blank frames. (Pictures to follow)

The bad news is- is that most of that beautiful, white comb they built was drone comb, meaning mostly male bee comb.  There were eggs, and larvae and alot of them.  Males are good for one thing in the bee world and that is mating, and eating. Having all those drones eventually hatching will require the hive to work their tales off keeping up with them. So......I had to take the comb out......  Drone babies are now sitting politely on my windowsill.

Here's the pics and video. Please feel free to ask anything.

Here are several shots of the drone comb before removal.  Covered in busy female worker bee's.  You will see in the video how "upset," they get with me.

The comb was built straight up- but because of the heaviness it started to droop giving it that "wave," affect.

Gloves on for this one!  Empty frames pulled from the hive are laying on the ground.  There are four frames left out of ten yet to be filled.  When two more of these frames are filled- then time for the next super to be added. Super is a bee box. There are ten frames per super.

What the crap is up with this bees?! Are you modernist?

So....upon visiting the bee's today I saw this- don't know why they did it. Don't know what to do with it. Queen laid eggs alllllll in it.

First video is me seeing it- so excited I trip over the smoker.

Second video starts with two bee's to the right exchanging nectar(looks like they are kissing) Listen closely though- you can hear them building the comb.

munchmunchmunch

The sky is falling?

Once upon a time there were five little chicks.  These five little chicks were brought to a store were they were bought by a loving couple.  It was a cold spring, and they were carefully raised up and kept warm inside the loving couples house. They had to be cared for to grow big enough and strong enough to go outside and do chicken like things.   As spring time warmed, the chickens grew, and the loving couple realized they were a little more work than they had time for.  The couple knew they needed a home were they could run around, grow bigger, and do chicken like things. They searched and searched for a new home when alas, they found another couple, who wanted to take the five little chicks.  Now the new couple is patiently waiting to meet these five little chicks but there is one problem-  These five little chicks remain unnamed!   

To help the couple name the gals we are taking a poll.  

Please add your ideas and we will pick the five names most voted on!

Here are some of the faves so far-

buster

Foghorn Leghorn,

 Batman

Robin

 Mother Goose,

 Moo

MotherClucker

Casper

Sugar

 Molasses

Three of these five chicks are black and two are white. Not much for creative inspiration but I have faith that you will come up with some great names!

Art. From the dogs.

No need to "add caption," to this one. These pics stand alone.