On Monday, Gabriel woke up and said, “Today is the day to check the bee hives.” We’ve had so much rain that there really hasn’t been a good time to get into the hives to check them. So, I did what any good mom would do, I put on a long sleeve shirt, long pants […]
What’s Up With the Bees?
The bees are doing so much better this year than they did last year. I’m chalking it up to cooler weather and some rain. Also, Gabriel was able to buy several packages of bees this spring and they are happy campers, yes they are. When I came home from town on Saturday, I found Carl […]
Relocating Bees
In case you don’t already know, Gabriel is our resident beekeeper. He’s 16 and is building quite a business for himself. It’s really exciting to watch. Every week we get calls from people who are looking for someone to come remove bees from their property. In addition to raising his own bees, Gabriel also does […]
Cold Weather Animal Care
I am taking part in a posting series related to the topic of “Homesteading in the Winter.” Each Thursday there will be a new post on a different issue associated with the needs and unique challenges of living on a homestead (big or small, urban or rural) during the winter. I am a teaming up […]
chicken update
One of the things that was on my summer to do list was finish painting the chicken house that we expanded. We had to expand the coop after a surprise gift of chicks from my mom and her husband this spring. I’m happy to report that it’s done. It looks nice doesn’t it? The hens […]
Bees {an update}
We lost one hive over the winter to carpenter ants and we made plans this spring to order packaged bees to replace it and replace a hive that is more aggressive than our other ones. We waited and waited for the bees and a few days before we were expecting them, Gabriel got a call saying […]
look what the stork brought
You might remember that a few weeks ago I mentioned that a friend from church brought over some eggs for out incubator. Well, Friday night we returned home from a play and found this little guy walking around in the incubator (Esther calls it the dehydrator…) Three babies hatched while we were out. […]
weekend blessings
Last night as we were playing a game of Spades, a friend from church called and asked Carl if we wanted some fertile eggs. Really? Why, yes, we’d love some. I know, not your normal everyday question but apparently Gabriel had told him that my mom gave us an incubator recently and we haven’t used […]
chicken coop expansion
The chicks are getting bigger and it’s time to put them with the big hens. We’ve put them in the run during the day and the hens have gotten along well. I’m not sure if it’s because the “flocks” are pretty even in numbers (28 hens, 28 chicks) or if it’s because there’s quite a […]
spring bees
It’s been a while since I’ve posted about the bees. The winter is pretty slow for them but since our winters are so mild they don’t just completely shut down like they do in a colder climate. Gabriel continues to learn a lot and has actually done several bee removals. Benjamin is becoming fascinated with bees […]