Bee Gazing

Here's a follow up to the bee drama. I observed both the Red & White Queen hives today. I think blocking the entrance and removing the leaking feeder was very helpful to Queen Margaret and the rest of the worker gals in the Bee Barn. No robbing apparent today. So, tonight I went out there and slipped a new non-leaking feeder back into the hive entrance and re-blocked most of the entrance so it could be well guarded. Long live Queen Margaret! (Beaufort for those geeky enough to follow the references). Then I spent a good long time sitting in front of my hives observing the little bees flying in with buckets of pollen on their back legs. How encouraging! Also, when changing out a feeder today I could observe the bees with their little proboscis sticking out to suck up the bee tea I made for them. Here is a bee tea recipe: 1 part chamomile tea 1 part white granulated sugar 1 pinch of non-iodized salt 10% honey I mean, who would love that tea? (I find it is a bit sweet for my taste ... but I hear the chamomile helps them digest the sugar). Below is a picture sent to my from my friend, Caryl. I tell you, this is what I did for a long time today. It's so fun to sit right in front of the hives and watch the activity. You don't need a bee suit to do it. They're curious but not defensive.

Happy Bee Day!

The bees are here! The bees are here!

Monday Morning I thought I'd give Fred Selby a call to see if those bees were getting close to ready. Well, what to my surprise I was told to come on down that afternoon for two packages ... otherwise I'd have to wait another week! Of course I was thrilled and went right down there to get the bees. Here's a picture of Fred carrying my bees to the truck I borrowed (Thank you, John!)

I was told to bring the bees home and set them in a shady spot until dark. Then, after dark I was to pour those bees into my boxes and release the queen down into the frames and watch her go in. Apparently their introduction period was over and they had already accepted their queen. Here I am setting them in the shade.

So, I arranged two boxes before hand. I have the "Red Queen" (Margaret) and the "White Queen" (Elizabeth). Margaret lives in the "bee barn" and Elizabeth lives in the urban graffiti bee ghetto.

Here's one of the boxes of bees just after opening:

Here's a photo of the girls settling in to the Bee Barn:

Although I did wear a bee suit as precaution, I did not wear gloves and had fairly open shoes for the event. I didn't bring a flashlight or a bee brush. Why? Because I'm a genius, that's why! So, the sun ducked down pretty quickly and I was out there unable to see much. But Rex, my photographer,provided enough light to allow me to temporarily see what I was doing until I was thoroughly blinded by the flash. Michael ran out with a light after all and helped me a bit. Nobody else had on protective gear and we miraculously got it all done without any stings or major catastrophe. Well, Valerie thought she might have been stung on the foot. But it wasn't a bad sting. And, really? Bare feet? Carrying your rat? Girl, puhleeeze! So, Tuesday I ran out to check on my bees. It was pretty quiet in the morning. But by the afternoon I did notice something interesting. Elizabeth's hive had little bees coming in and out of the reduced entrance taking their orientation flights about to see exactly where they were. Margaret's hive had what looked like a bar room brawl going on out front. I'm sorry I didn't bring a camera to capture these images. But let me describe them. Then entire entrance was covered with bees. Some of them were fuzzy and yellow like the ones I deposited the night before. Some were bigger with a little more black on their bottoms. And there seemed to be some real grappling going on. There were two on one, three on one, three on three, hugging, pushing, climbing, stinging, buzzing. It was crazy. The hive even sounded different. There was a lot of activity coming and going from the reduced entrance. And there were lots of other bees scoping out up beneath the outer cover and looking for chinks in the armor. By Tuesday evening I determined my bees were being robbed and that I needed to do something about it. I had feeders in the entrances of both hives. But the one at this hive was leaking. I guess that tipped off the hooligans in the neighborhood that these guys were loaded and that their bee tea needed to be liberated. So, I took the feeder off the hive and put a new entrance reducer on the front. Then I piled some wood chips in front of the little reduced entrance. Do I have any photos of this stuff? No. The camera card is full. The battery is dead. And I was just a little too panicked to snap any photos. As of this morning it looks like there are still some bees that want in. But it's not the craziness I had yesterday. Of course, I don't know how long my girls can get on without their sweet elixer since they need to be building comb and laying brood. In fact, I hope the robbers didn't kill Margaret! In the mean time, I did find some top feeders. In a couple of days I will put those on. Hopefully that will be a more secure environment. Can you imagine moving to a new house and being robbed your first day there? This may become a blog for "what not to do" while keeping animals and plants! Jeeze, Louise! With that thought, I leave you with the Bee Keeper Super Hero photo:

Easter Snapshots

Amira posed the turkeys for a photo.

Then it was off to Neni & John's for a feast and an egg hunt. Neni and John had a nice view of the hunt from their back deck.

Grampa Alligator is in tight with that Easter Bunny!

Survivors

Good news! We have four surviving turkeys. I didn't want to jinx that by making any premature announcements.

I have to say that they sure are cute and incredibly stupid, in an endearing sort of way. Yesterday we turned them out on the greens for the first time. They were stunned, not for five minutes or so, but pretty much all day. They didn't know what to make of the green stuff upon which they stood. They also found sunlight to be perplexing. It just wasn't the same as the old heat lamp. They don't seem to eat and drink as much as I thought they would. But they do seem to be growing. So, I guess they're getting enough.

Now, we were able to turn those turkeys outside by day into the "tractor" because we finally moved the previously incubated birds into the new bird barn that Michael built. I have to say, it is a nice looking chicken house with detachable porch to protect those birds from hawks. (They are still hawk bait sized).

We moved the "exotic" brown bird out of the meat bird yard and in with the little chickens.

She just wasn't fitting in with the roasters. (We're pretty sure, but not positive, she's a hen). Well, she is also having a bit of an adjustment getting along with the little chickens. There are some feisty cockrels (or "roasters" to which they are referred around here)in there too. Michael, Rex and Amira helped to relocated the little ones from the "tractor" to the "barn".

But the good news is that the bird barn is in the orchard where they can hang out with the other laying hens and Mr. Johnson. The porch protects all the little ones so they won't get killed by the big ones. But now they can get used to each other. And one day the fence will disappear and it is our hope that there won't be a terrible adjustment as they will all be acquainted.

Here are some close ups of the motley crew that hatched in March:

Speaking of birds, the kids found a blue jay nest in a tree across the street. Amira snapped off this photo. How cute is that?

And, speaking of survivors, in spite of my many attempts to kill all the seedlings I started in January, I still had some plants to put in the garden. We shoveled in two truck loads of horse manure to prep the soil and planted 17 tomato plants (four of which are labeled and the rest will reveal themselves as the season progresses). In the next bed over I planted out several huckleberry bushes, three eggplant (I think it is a Thai green eggplant? I can't remember!) and an assortment of unlabeled peppers. Now, I originally planted some red sweet peppers, jalapenos and anaheims. So, hopefully I still have an assortment.

With the super warm weather this weekend I think things will get off to a good start. Farmer Michael ran drip tape out to the newly planted rows. We pounded in fence posts to provide support for our raspberry patch and the peas. Michael also set up a watering system for the plants in the front of the house where I put some rhubarb, rosemary, thyme, marjoram, stevia, borage, catnip, sunchokes, calendula and a ton of strawberries. I still have some more planting to do up there this weekend. Still no bees yet ... in my boxes. But there are a ton of them in the yard. They just love the flowers on the bindweed that is sprawling everywhere (including amongst my peas!) I will give a call next week to find out where those bees are. In the mean time, I might just set up a box with some beeswax to see if I can catch a swarm? I enticed the kids to clear a pile of brush from the backyard so that I could actually see my "hedgerow". I promised them a cook out with hot dogs and marshmallows in exchange for brush removal. And, yes, we could burn the brush in the fire pit. A good time was had by all.

Well, what I lack in skill I feel I make up in enthusiasm. It's so cool to see this yard go from a barren weed patch to a thriving little eco-system of poultry and plants. And, of course, for each task I accomplish outside, another dish piles up inside. Thanks, kids, for taking this picture. A gentle reminder that I'm not Martha Stewart. I mean, really? Who do I think I am?

T Minus 2 and Counting

Knock, knock, knock .... "What?" "Another turkey died. And the light burned out."

Seriously? I was warned about how these things die at the drop of a hat for no good reason. I'm down to 3 blue slat mixes and 1 bourbon red. Although, I really shouldn't even count them anymore.

They have clean food and water. They are under a 175 watt heat lamp. I've put blankets over the top of the tub to protect from drafts.

I guess I'll go google "my turkeys keep dying" and see what I get.

Oh, and Happy Easter.

Five Alive

... and then there were five. I was warned to get more turkeys than I wanted to end up with. But, being the optimist, I figured nothing ridiculous would happen to "mine". I've heard Joel Salatin say that turkeys are the one animal that just looks for the most innovative way to kill itself. I've heard that they freeze because they don't have the sense to get under the heat lamp. I've heard that they suffocate because they pile on each other. I've heard that they die of thirst and hunger because they forget to eat and drink or don't recognize the food and water.

Well, it seems we have a case of turkey pile. Amira knocked on my bedroom door this morning, not to wish me a happy birthday as I was expecting (silly me!) but to tell me that we have a dead turkey. Already?! Unbelievable!

She was holding it in her hand. It was very flat. She told me the others were standing on it.

Okay, so if these other five can make it, I'll be stoked. I can't believe this one didn't even last a full 24 hours here??? It lasted a full week at the farm.

I'll do you all a favor and not post a picture.

T-Day is here!

It's officially T-Day! That's right, Valerie has some new roommates. I picked up six turkey poults this morning. I now have three bourbon red and three blue slate/bourbon red mix turkey poults.



Here are Valerie and her friend Madelyn holding the little ones.



Now, that last batch of chicks that we hatched out of the incubator were just not handled at all. As a result, they are a little crazy and skittish. So, we're making sure to handle the turkeys. I have to confess, though, we are a little worried about getting too attached. We are definitely raising them for meat. Although, the hope is that I have at least one hen and one tom from the Bourbon Red set that we can keep to breed. The mixed breed ones are definitely headed for some feast down the road.

Here are some pix of Michael, Amira & I giving the littles a bit of warmth and mothering (or, fathering, in the case of Michael).







That said, the White Plymouth Rock cockrels we are raising for roasting are much friendlier than those mixed breed nutty chicks we hatched in Valerie's classroom. I really do spend more time than I should feeding them and talking to them and even picking them up. (They are so darn soft!) But, alas, 27 May is the date we have set for the slaughter. It will be a difficult day, but a delicious summer.



Back to that batch that hatched out of the incubator ... some people have requested recent photos. So, here they are:



Here you see the lot of them jammed up the corner of the "chicken tractor". We have a wind guard up behind them because we spoil them. They come into the garage under a light in a big old box at night. And they go out for "field trips" on nice days.



We have two little brown speckled birds with white chests. Here is one of them posing for the camera. They really are beautiful. I hope they are hens that will lay for us.





Above are another pair of our hatchlings. I believe the black-ish one is the one we helped hatch out of the olive egg. We are really hoping that is a hen, not a roaster! And the white one, if you look closely, is a turken. We had one white and one black turken hatch. We think this white one might be a hen because it is totally different from that strapping black lad.



Above you can see one of the turken chickens that hatched. We're pretty sure that broad chested, big footed, long tailed baldy is a cockrel.

On another note, we are speculating that the "bonus mystery chick" sent by McMurray's Hatchery with the Plymouth Rocks is a Modern Broad Breasted Red Game Hen. Here's a photo of her out in the yard:



Here's a picture from Backyardchicken.com:



And here's a drawing of one from the McMurray's site:



We narrowed it down to this breed after realizing they were sending one "exotic rare breed" from their catalog. Well, there were a lot of pictures we could rule out immediately. So, this is what we think we have. I'm hoping we can keep her as a layer. But she is really shy and not socialized at all. She doesn't flock with the chickens she's cooped up with now. And I'm not sure how she'll do if we stick her with others. Time will tell. But she is a cool looking bird.

So, for those keeping score, we have a total of 47 chickens and 6 turkeys, 2 rats, 1 cat, 1 rabbit, 3 kids and two adults to wrangle all that.

In the last bit of news, no B-day for me this week. Well, that is to say, "No Bee Day" for me this week. Turns out the bees won't be ready until the end of April. And that is, frankly, a good thing. I still have to plant the survivors (of my many attempts to destroy) in the greenhouse. Plus I have to run water to the various bramble patches and hedgerows I've placed throughout the yard. This place is so cool!