I Caught a Swarm!

There was a swarm of bees in one of our trees this morning.

I have a feeling one of my hives is responsible for this because I saw several supercedure cells on my last hive inspection.

At least they landed on the lowest branch of the tree so they were very easy to capture.  I could either start a new hive with them or find another beekeeper who might be interested in it.  Since I didn't have any extra hives ready, my beekeeping mentor found someone who wanted it.

 So I just opened up my nifty beekeeping tool box, which doubles as a swarm catcher, and gave the branch a good couple of shakes over the box.

And in they went.  They are off to their new home this evening!

Rotational Pasture Complete!

I've finally completed cross fencing the pasture area so that the does and buck(s) each have two pasture areas to rotate between. Luckily I've never had a parasite load and the goats have never tested positive for worms of any kind. And I sure would like to keep it that way.

Rotational Grazing Plan - click to enlarge

Hence, the installation of rotational grazing. Apparently parasites can only survive 1 month without a host, so every 30 days the goats will rotate pastures. Not only does it greatly reduce the chance of infestation, the pasture gets to rest and isn't over grazed. I'm also going to take this opportunity to improve the pasture areas by sowing high quality forage for them. I'm hoping all this effort will result in happy, healthy goats and lowered feed costs.

Actually I tried to do this last year with electric fencing. Despite 5 strands of electrified wire, they never learned to respect the electric fence. So this year I put in cattle panels to keep everyone where they belong. No unplanned breedings for me!

 

Ricky finds a new home...

With a heavy heart I bid farewell to my sweet little Ricky.

Eden Hollow Ricky

He has gone to sire a new herd with a fine lady named Tish.  He will have many new girls to befriend at his new home.  (Lucky boy!)  But he will be missed around here...

New Barn Cats!

What is it about hay and grain that shouts "Mouse Hotel Now Open For Business"? So, we now have two new employees at the Mouse Hotel, errr, I mean Eden Hollow. 

Introducing... Tom and Jerry!

Tom and Jerry are very good at their job... mouse guests can check in, but they never leave! How are these two new employees paid, you ask? Fresh, warm goat milk, of course!

Eden Hollow...The Land of Milk AND Honey

In an attempt to expand my homesteading skills,

I'm now keeping bees! 



 (April) I have my hives all assembled, painted and almost ready for the bees

 It all began with a very sweet hubby who apparently really does listen to everything I have to say!  (Who knew!) One day, I was just kind of talking out loud and I said something like, "Wouldn't it be neat to keep bees so we could have our own honey and beeswax?".  Well, that's all it took and under the Christmas tree I found a beautiful new bee hive, veil, gloves and smoker. Most girls want spa days, jewelry and such.  Not me.  I want bees. Call me crazy.

So, at this point I realized my out loud thinking had just become a reality and in reality I knew absolutely NOTHING about keeping bees.  I found a free beginners bee keeping class through the local bee keeping club and co-op extension and learned that bees, like goats, do better in multiples.  Apparently, much like socialism (don't even get me started on THAT topic), a bee keeper must sometimes steal from the rich (hive) and give to the poor (hive), and everyone is the better for it.  Hmmm.   Well, long story short, that's how I ended up with two hives...

In mid May the two Nucs I ordered arrived and with the help of my mentor, they were installed in their new homes.  I will admit, I was very nervous working around the bees for the first time.  I had to keep reminding myself, "Don't freak out, just BREATHE!" 

The other day I went out to fill their feeders and I saw them literally dripping from the hives.  I did a quick search for the cause of this interesting bee-havior (sorry, couldn't help myself) and this is called "bearding".  Can you see how they were forming a "beard" at the hive entrance?  Apparently, this means they were hot and needed a little more ventilation. 

I did a hive inspection yesterday and all seems well.  They were filling up their first hive body nicely and were ready for a second hive body.  Later this summer, if all goes well, I'll add a honey super or two and hopefully harvest a little bit o'honey!  Fingers crossed!

A Loooong Overdue Update On My Broody Buttercup

I don't know what happened with me keeping this little blog up.  Chalk it up to an Epic Fail!  But I don't give up easily, so I'm gonna give it another try. 

Anyhoo, let's get back to Miss Broody Buttercup.  I let her try to brooding a clutch of eggs back in January, but nobody hatched :(  I don't know who was more disappointed, me or Buttercup.  That silly chicken really wanted to be a momma and was very reluctant to stop brooding, even after 45 days.  After I was sure nobody was going to hatch, I reluctantly opened the eggs.  All had developed to about the 2 week mark, but had died after that.  I think it was just too cold, despite a very dedicated wanna be mamma.  

Like me, Miss Buttercup doesn't give up easily and come spring, she was back at it.  I gave her 10 eggs to sit on and exactly 21 days later 11 chicks hatched.  No, that wasn't a typo... I gave her 10 and 11 chicks hatched.  I was pretty certain I counted correctly, so I can only guess I had a little "helper" slip her an extra egg when I wasn't looking.  Anyway, I'm just so impressed that she went from a 0% success rate to a 100% success rate! 

Oh boy, is she a happy hen now.