Time for Bees

I have since joined a Beekeepers Club and learned my bees simply swarmed. A normal thing to happen to a newbie that misinterpreted signals. Therefore, when a surprise shipment of nucs came available to our beekeeping club, MrBeans said get 2! So we grabbed up 2 and have been in a dash to clean the old home and get a new home to get these little ladies a comfy place to live.

After immersing myself in a book and talking with experienced beekeepers, we decided to use the 2 10-frame deeps as one home and to buy 3 8-frame medium supers as another home. Honey supers will go on top of each with a queen excluder a little later in the season. We have inner boards and telescoping tops. The inner boards have two holes each that can accommodate a mason jar of sugar water should the need arise. Currently, we are not feeding in that manner. I'm simply mixing sugar water with a drop of lemongrass and putting it in a bucket with sticks out in the middle of the yard.

If you look carefully, you can see two bees on the sticks. They blend well! I'm working on a 5-gallon bucket feeder that is similar to a gravity-fed chicken waterer/feeder. The one I made will work well when I get a lid that fits a bit tighter. Currently this orange bucket is working fairly well so the 5-gallon bucket is a bit farther down on the list of things to get done.
Transferring the nucs into the hives took a little longer than I intended because I have a rip in my face netting. So I was working one-handed most of the time as I had the rip clinched together in my fist. When I needed two hands, I used them quickly and then grasped the ripped section again. For the most part, using the smoker and moving slowly but surely helped A LOT.

I am repairing the rip this week then I'll go out and check on their progress.

For now, here are the hives set up! There were still a few bees in the nuc after I moved all the frames so they are positioned near the entrances of the hives until the next day.

We were in a hurry to get them set up so the new items are unpainted. Honestly, the old ones need new paint. So I'm going to paint a little at a time to keep as few bees from sticking to the wet paint as possible. I'm also going to use a more neutral color instead of stark white. I've seen quite a few in various colors ~ now I just have to pick what color or colors I want to try!

Odd Laying Places & Fermented Feed Update

So, I get out to the coop today while it's all nice and drizzly. It looks like like the board across the nesting boxes is working pretty well! Normally, most of the shavings are out of the box the following day, so at least the board is good for that use :D Good enough for me!

After gathering these eggs I went in the coop to tend the birds, only to find ....

Yes, folks, you see that right... 3 eggs under under the feeder and 1 just out in the open. What are these girls thinking??

When I go out to the coop, I have to put everything down by the door and walk to the end of the coop and toss scratch feed through the wire just so I can get in the door without being accosted. I wrote about fermented feed awhile back. Well, here's my girls flocking to it as soon as I put the bowl down.

After getting this flock fed and watered, it's the pheasants turn! They enjoy the fermented feed as well. I throw them some and they pick through the hay to eat it. They're pretty cute running to it to peck at it :)

So, here is a final picture of chickens spreading the hay for us as I left the coop :)

Mending the Coop

This is what I'm greeted with everyday when I walk around the building to the coop... All my girls & guys waiting on me to throw fermented grains to them!

Today, I have a small job to accomplish ... I must mend the nesting boxes. Somehow, the bottom is coming loose, so eggs are winding up in the straw below. Thankfully there *is* straw there to cushion their fall!

 Here is one angle. You can see the far right wooden box is leaning.

And here you see where the eggs are slipping out when the girls climb in and out. If you are saying to yourself, 'it looks like the girls are roosting in here'... you'd be right. :-/ So, I have a solution for that, too. Technically, MrBeans has a solution for that! ;-)

Scraping out as much poo was first at hand. Not as bad as it seems considering it's all practically dirt. There were only a few older clumps that were definitively poo. We had a piece of 2x4 that was almost the perfect length for the two projects. 

First, the 2x4 fit perfectly between the nesting boxes and one of the roosts. So, we fit it under there and sawed it to size.

The rest of it was used to put across the nesting boxes. This will surely help them from scratching out all of the shavings as well as discourage them from nesting. We shall see tomorrow!

Here's the finished product! What do you think?

The Feast of Saint Valentine

So we don't really celebrate Valentine's. We generally focus on the grandkids. Okay, that's when I started acknowledging Valentine's in the lovey way. MrBeans got the children something every year. The sap ;-)

As you may or may not know, grandchildren change everything <3

I started making crafts for the wee buggers for each holiday. We're going to have quite the collection in a few years.

This year I decorated the hearth with all the Valentine items. I think I like this arrangement the best so far.

The Valentine's Day after we found out GrandBean1 was on the way, I made this...

It was in a different frame originally, with a wine-colored, felt photo matte surrounding it. Now, it's a bit simpler.

For the babies' 1st Valentine's we take "Kisses from Mimi" pictures & make a footprint flower for "Mimi's & Papa's Garden."

The top one is GrandBean1 and GrandBean2 is on the bottom. Next year I'll need a different frame since I have at least 3 more babies to be adding to the collection!

GrandBean1 in the very back; GrandBean2 to the left; GrandBean4 to the right; GrandBean3 in the front.

Still debating on whether to get GrandBean5's footprints & pictures since he was born a mere 2 days before Valentine's. Lots of factors to consider. I'm completely okay with waiting!

For the babies' 2nd Valentine's we do art!  I fold a piece of pink cardstock in half and let the wee ones scribble away. After a few snips, colors, prints, and tapes these are the results...

GrandBean1's art is the dark pink with GrandBean2's art is on the lighter pink.

The babies' 3rd Valentine's finds them making this LOVE canvas.

This is obviously GrandBean1's artwork ;-)

There's no telling how I'll arrange it next year considering there will be so much to add!

GrandBean5

.... has made his arrival!!!

GrandBean5
Sunday
February 12, 2017
8#4oz
21 3/4 in

Parents: Bean1 and DILBean1
Sibling: GrandBean1

A Long Time Awaitin'

And it's been almost 3 years since I  last posted!
Here's what's changed:

I became the day care provider for GrandBean1
My Mom passed away
Bean5 graduated high school
Bean3 married DILBean3; Bean1 married DILBean1
We moved
My FIL passed away
FOUR GrandBeans have been born! For a total of 4 boys and 1 girl.

So we've increased our family size just a wee bit ;-) This year, Bean6 is graduating high school & starting college, Bean7 also starts college via the Dual Enrollment program, and Bean5 & FianceBean5 are getting married. I've begun to accept that we will never do anything boring or little. There is forever something going on and no day is routine.

It's been a bit slow going getting things moving on the new homestead.

We did raise a pig from piglet to pork chop and harvested all of the quail. We added pheasants and more chickens to the the menagerie. We have a kitty cat that came with the property. Our soil is horrendous to the point that we are forced to do raised beds. We had bees but something happened and they died (I'm still researching what it could have been). We have an apple tree on the property which excited me to no end. There are blackberries and burdock all over the back property.

While there is so much good, it also feels like we just keep hitting snags every which way we turn. BUT we keep plugging away. It means that much to us to keep pushing forward.