Stealing honey!

We started keeping bees in 2008. The farm needs the bees for good pastures. The clover needs pollenated and my cows love clover. So I bought one hive that summer. I have bought others and caught swarms. It has been a fun hobby. At one time I had as many as 8 hives. Right now I have four hives. I went into the winter with 6 but lost two to these unknown reasons that have been killing all the bees.

I have found myself allergic to honey bees!  I have been stung about 20 times and I had hoped that I was building up an immunity to the bees. But it turns out I have been working up a reaction to them. I got stung last fall, first by a honey bee and then the next week by a wasp. I broke out with hives each time. The first time I went to the hospital and the second time I went to town just in case I had breathing trouble.

Everything turned out fine but because of this development I was not going to mess with the bees and honey this year. I am getting tested and may do allergy shots. (I do not want to give up my bees!!!)

I talked to a friend and he said his bee hives were full! More honey than he had seen in years. It has been a very good spring. Lots of rain and lots of wildflowers. Wildflowers are still on the fields. (This time last year we were in a drought and the grass was brown. We had no flowers left. I had been feeding the bees since May.)

My son-in-law, Joe, said he would help. He loves the honey! We suited up, got the smokers smoking, and headed in. The first hive we opened was FULL! So many bees! All four hives were all full. We stole a total of 20 frames. I have averaged about 3 pounds of honey per frame in the past and these frames were as heavy as I have ever seen. So we should have 50-60 lbs. of honey! Or more!

Joe had never stolen honey and processed it. After a short explanation of the process, he de-capped and spun the frames out in the centrifuge. He watched the honey hit the sides and drip through the filtering screen and into the holding tank.

We picked the prettiest comb and cut it to put into the pint mason jars. We filled the remainder of the jars with honey. Most folks don't know that you can eat honeycomb. You can spread it on toast or just eat it out of the jar.

Now I have to get the capped honey bear bottles, 1 lb. bottles , and 2 lb. bottles to process the rest of the honey. Like I said, I was not going to steal honey this year so I did not prepare my equipment. I will let you know how much we get this year. Enjoy the beauty of the comb honey for now.

What kind of bird is this?

Does anyone know what kind of bird this is? It has white tips to it's tail feathers and no other color that I can see. I know it will be a standard bird that I should recognize but I don't.

What am I?

Never before Turkeys

We have never raised turkeys before. And when I say we, I mean my whole family. I don't believe my grandparents even raised turkeys. I never heard any turkey stories. And wouldn't there be turkey stories? I am waiting for stories of my own. I have duck and chicken stories. But would these stories stand the test of time? Will my grandchildren (when I have some) remember the stories to pass on? Maybe these stories are only important to me. And my guess is that is the way of it. But I am having a great time collecting stories.

Well, I was told to keep the turkeys in a small cage until they are about 4 months old because they are very delicate creatures. I lost 4 turkeys during the big storm a couple weeks ago due to the rain and cold. I did not expect such a cold night after the rains. But I also lost 4 turkeys in the brood box.  And the ones that I let out to the large pen are having a blast. They get on top of their "coop" and roost. They fly down and then run and chase each other. They hunt for bugs and scratch in the hay. I can't see how a cage would be better than that. So like everything I do on the farm, this too will be trial and error. And the poor animals will suffer through my learning about them.

I have three kinds of turkeys, Standard Brown, Bourbon Red, and Royal Palm. The Reds are the light brown ones in the pictures and Royal Palm are the white ones.  They will actually be white with scattering of black. I believe they are all heritage breeds, which means they have been around a long time. They are not "Butterball" turkeys. They are more like wild turkeys.

I hope you will like my turkey stories as they develop.


Turkeys-Brown, Bourbon Red and Royal Palm

Loving the sun after a big rain storm

Finally figs

My mother's parents, Granny and Gramps, had a farm when I was young.
They raised 7 children and a very large garden.
Gramps worked at a local factory and farmed.
Granny ran the house and the garden.
Gramps had apple and pear trees, strawberries and blackberries.

My father's parents lived in the city.
But like most folks back then, they had a small kitchen garden.
Grandpa was a barber.
Grandma was secretary of the First Baptist Church.
Grandpa had plum and pecan trees, muscadines, grapes, and watermelons.

We ate fruit in season.
Strawberry ice cream in the summer.
Pear cobblers in the fall.
Apple butter all year round.

And my Grandma had figs.
I loved figs...warm from the sun...tasted just like honey.
I would break one in half to see if the ants had gotten to it first.
But I would pick them off and eat it anyway.

I have wanted to grow figs of my own since I was young.
I have tried to raise figs for years.
I tried in town and for the past five years, on the farm.
So last summer, a good friend, Katie, introduced me to a great nursery.

I got three fig bushes. (two Brown Turkey and one Celesta).
Eva told me where to plant them. (northeast side of house).
John said they looked fine. (he accepted them!)
And they have grown like crazy!

Finally Figs!!


Brown Turkey Figs

Spring hay for winter feed

This has been a good year so far for hay production and grazing. Just enough water and sunshine to produce very nice fields. We have been excited to see all the hay being cut and baled. The countryside is just littered with all these big bales of hay. Looks like beautiful pastural paintings. We hayed all but three of our pastures. The cows were on two and the sheep had part of another. We hayed and baled 114 round bales. It will take more than that to make it through the winter but it is a great start. We will hope the drought doesn't return this year and everyone can get another cutting. It was so dry last year that everyone was feeding hay in August and selling off their herds. But that was last year....we will hope for a better summer.


Hay in field five



Luna and Odin playing

I try to let Luna and Odin out twice a day to just play with each other. They come up to the house and play on the porch where it is shady and cool. Odin starts out pretty white and by the end of the time his neck is wet and dirty. She is very easy with him but like I have said before he is just a stinker. He growls and grabs her fur and hangs on and she bites at his neck and paws him. I think they shall be good friends. Neither of them is food agressive, even when they get kitchen scraps. They both like to chase the chickens and lick the bottle as I feed the calf.

Feeding the chickens (and Luna)

When I am feeding the chickens the scraps from the kitchen

 Luna checks it all out to see if there is anything interesting for her.

In this mix there was corn on the cob.

I tried to get a picture of Luna with one of the cobs in her mouth.

She picked one up and carried it for a bit.

 

Feeding the chickens (and Luna)