Bee report

One evening last week, our bee mentor (Tommy Steele) came out and opened our hive with us. We had been thinking about doing it for weeks, but felt we needed someone more knowledgeable than we are to give us a report on how our bees are doing. Luckily, our bees are thriving. Something about benign neglect, maybe? Well, we've not really been neglecting them, but we haven't been messing with them much either. I had actually quit feeding the bees a few weeks ago, but after showing us all the emerging new bees, Tommy suggested I start feeding them again. And this morning I put on our very first honey super! That means the bees have probably stored up enough honey to feed themselves through the winter and now they can start making honey for us. We have so much to learn about beekeeping. It sometimes seems a little overwhelming. I feel that we will have to go through a full year cycle before we know what we are doing and when we are supposed to do it.

(try as I might, I cannot get this clip reoriented)

A few weeks back, the Bluegrass Beekeepers club that I belong to had a drawing for a hive to give to a young beginning beekeeper and my grandson, Coleman, won. (Coleman will be 14 in just a matter of weeks.) The hive is now established in his backyard, right next to his garden. Unfortunately for Coleman, he has been stung a few times already, but I think he is learning how to keep his bees well fed and happy and the stings don't seem to have discouraged him much.

(Coleman and his beehive)

There's plenty around here for the bees to be working on right now. I love, love, love the color of these phlox!

Independence Day

(If you have your sound on, you will hear the lambs baa-ing back and forth, but none of them ever lift their heads or stop eating! I guess the grass tasted really good after a few days of being confined to the barn!)

Yes, I know, it has already come and gone, but we are still working on gaining independence here on the farm. We decided, rather spur of the moment, to wean the lambs on the 4th of July. I didn't even bother to check the Farmer's Almanac on this one because it didn't seem to help poor Pippi much to be weaned during the "correct" phase of the moon. Actually, the lambs have done quite well. The first afternoon and night there was a bit of baa-ing back and forth between them and their mothers. Unfortunately, we don't have a good way to separate them enough so they can't hear each other. My solution is to turn the big barn fan on high and put the radio on an NPR classical music station, turned up quite loud. I think it helps and it's easier for me to listen to than the country music stations (not my favorite) I used to use at weaning time. Country music 24/7 is a bit much for me! Mid-week I separated the ewe lambs from the ram lambs, so I could begin to halter train the ewe lambs. (At this point in the year, I don't want to become anymore attached to the ram lambs. Their time here is coming to an end.) The little girl lambs went out to graze without their moms for the first time a few days ago. They do have "Grannie" Carmen as an adult chaperone and Pippi is still hanging out with them. A few nights ago I was able to turn the radio off, so I think we are through the worst of it.

Daily surprises

Late last Friday afternoon, as I was leaving the farm, rushing down the farm lane, splashing through the creek (which is why my car is almost never clean), I passed the tenant house that sits close by the road. What I saw there made me catch my breath. I stopped the car in the middle of the road and scrambled to find my camera (now that I have a blog, it's nearly always with me). There in the yard of the vacant little house were two young foxes. We see foxes on the roads around here fairly often and nearly always at night, so I could hardly believe what I was seeing in broad daylight. I pulled off the road and cautiously got out of the car. One of the foxes ran down over the hill toward the creek, but the other stayed and watched me as I was watching it. The whole scene seemed somehow magical. She moved back and forth across the yard several times, stopping to stare at me. (I don't know for sure that it was a female, but that's how I have been thinking about it.) I will admit that after a while, I began to get a little freaked out. The population of rabid animals in this part of the country has risen in the last few years, so I didn't want to take any foolish chances. This fox looked healthy, alert and more curious than anything else. After maybe 10 minutes or so of our mutual fascination with each other, she decided to join her sibling and casually trotted off down the hill and out of sight. (you can click to biggify and this time it will work!)

I can't stop thinking about how the fox looked at me, somehow expectantly. Honestly, if I hadn't had my camera and been able to record the whole thing, I might have decided I'd imagined some of it. Now, of course, every time I leave the farm, I find myself looking for the foxes. I've said it many times and it is so true.....everyday is different around here and you never know what surprises are in store.

Game on

There's a new game on here. We are once again in danger of being outsmarted by some not very smart peafowl. The blackberries are getting close to ripening and the peafowl are checking them out---all day long! Sunday afternoon, Mike was working in the garden, weeding his precious corn patch, when he looked up and saw one of the juvenile peacocks snacking on some almost ripe blackberries. I happened to be standing where I could watch the whole thing and it made me laugh out loud (though I didn't let Mike hear me!). Mike is usually calm and quiet, but he went nuts when he saw the berries being picked off. He started yelling and running after the peacock. Instead of running out of the garden, the peacock ran in circles and Mike ran in circles after him. It took several laps around the garden before the peacock gave up and headed for the barn. Of course, he was back again in a matter of minutes.

A few days ago, I stopped at Fayette Seed store and bought some bird netting to put over the berries. Unfortunately, I didn't buy quite enough and there are still some unprotected berries, which is where I found one of the juveniles this afternoon. We are at war here people!