The harvests are finally rolling in
With our late start and the crazy rain, it won’t be a great year.
I still don't know how to measure wood amounts in cords
But I estimate this to be around a metric shit ton.
Brood, brood as far as the eye can see
7 Frames full of brood recto verso. Looks like the queen finally took it upon herself to lay some serious egg. In the course of next week I expect the colony to triple in size which will put us on par with last season.
Freedom rangers
25 of them and they all made it through the bowels of USPS. As I introduced them to their new living quarters, I dipped their beaks into the water so they knew where it was right away. They were all quite thirsty traveling all the way from Pennsylvania.
We ordered them from Freedom Ranger Hatchery (have a link), they were excellent to deal with.
Machetes have a bad rep,
but they can clear some serious bush.
This whole area was reclaimed along with the ancient logging road leading to it. This is where the chicken coop will go, rotating the fenced-in area for the chickens with the garden each season.
I wish I had a picture of what it looked like before.
The garden this year
Nothing major but pretty decent.
All fixed with a few finishing touches
All it’s missing now is a window but I’ll wait until after we moved the coop to its new location in a couple of weeks.
Bear
That sac of shit ripped open the coop like a can of tuna, -1 chick :
A day working in the rain later, it’s structurally sound again.
Reinforced the front panel & added extra locking throughout.
Painting will have to wait for more clement weather.
New place to hang out in
The chicks still fit through the fence which is a problem since they’re getting chased by the big chickens. We can’t keep them in the coop all the time so here’s their new protection/containment.
This will be used as shelter during the warm days by the meat birds.
The pecking order
We introduced the chicks to the 4 grown up chickens today. They shared the same quarters for weeks now and were able to get used to each other. Of course the big ones went immediately after the small ones to establish the pecking order.
It always breaks my heart but that’s the way it is. All I do is make sure one of them doesn’t get all the attention. Natural as it is, I’m still angry towards the big ones, especially considering they too were small before. I can’t help but grab a plastic rake and establish my pecking order if they go too hard on them. This has the double advantage of satisfying my need for justice while reinforcing my place at the very top of said order. All the chickens respect the crap out of me now and make way around me. That’s right, I’m the alpha-chicken!
Which is good because Rhode-Island reds are not shy at all which causes problems when locking them up every night among other things. It’s a healthy reminder that they are on the wrong end of the plastic rake.
No pics or video, I was too busy containing this ruckus.
A successful introduction
I installed 2 colonies today and everything went extremely well. Having done this once in the past really helped; I knew how to read the bees better and kept them very docile during the whole process.
The second package introduced into the top bar hive
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The hives in all their glory
A close-up of the new Langstroth hive this season (up-side down because iPhone)
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Busy figuring their new place out
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The weather kept me on my toes but fortunately left us alone for a good while. The rain poured heavily a couple of hours afterwards, I hope all the bees found their way inside before.
And this is what happens once they figured it out
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This is what happens as chicks learn to lay down
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They spend the first few days of their lives standing; little by little they figure out they don’t have to and look like a bunch of sleepy drunks in the process.
It takes a surprinsingly long time to paint
I still need to add a few decorations to make it cool. Unfortunately, the supplier has delayed delivery of the colonies by a week to allow the queens more time for their mating flight since the weather didn’t cooperate so far.
8 Buff Orpingtons
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Stabbing wasps
Living closer to nature means having a higher chance of competing in the great game of “survival of the fittest”. Having had my share of problems with yellow jackets and paper wasps, I want to annihilate them with great prejudice.
Before it gets too warm the nests need to go.
Oh so you can sting? Well I can stab you with a pole mounted knife.
Welcome to freaking wasp central
Bare feet offer optimal traction on a metal roof.
The knife’s angle is perfect for getting in there and cutting the single point attachment of these nests (horrible design btw but I expect no less of wasps).
They will be squashed and buried in snow for good measure.
