First Harvest

 







FIRST BeeHappy Honey harvest

Thanks to my be mentors Jane and Rob Wild, also my mom for harvesting the first batch of honey! I wish I had been there, next time. The honey came from two hives, I wish it had been from all four, however, it seems as if the queens in hives one and hive three weren't really doing their job. In fact hive one is essentially a frat house of drones because the queen wasn't able to do her job. As I understand it looked as if she were injured. Hive three swarmed this spring and I decided to leave it alone, assuming that they would create a new queen. Rookie move. I should have recognized about a month later that the new queen wasn't very strong. I should have reQueened. The realities of a rookie keeper. So as we head into the winter I really think only two hives will make it.

Back to the good news. Two hives produced about 40 pounds of honey. Not a ton but enough to satisfy a rookie keeper. My mom did all the work and I think she has officially become a beekeeper too.

I look forward to getting bee hives going here at school too. Orange Blossom and Avacado honey instead of apple and peach blossom.

Report

There is a new flock of baby silkies at the barn. They are amazingly smart even at only a few days old. I was a little worried that the weather was getting too cold at night for them, but they are actually plenty warm when they sit under mom's wing. It is funny to come into the barn and not see the babies anywhere and gradually they peek there heads out from under mom. When my hen Butterscotch hatched 7 eggs out this summer, she would tuck them underneath her until they were strong enough to be exposed to the cooler air.

Needless to say they are still eating grower and will do so for several more weeks. They have a lot to learn from mom but it is still important for them not to get bored, especially as the pecking order is getting established.

In a few weeks we will be prepping the barn for the winter. It takes quite a bit of work to put up the corrugated clear plastic on the outdoor coop, clean and sterilize the coops, get the heated dog bowls ready, adding new protein to the feed, adding lights and making sure each bird is in top condition going into the cold weather.

Lastly here are a 13 tips for raising happy chickens.

(reported from stories at home, thanks M+D for taking care of birds)