It has been ages since I have actually gotten my act together enough to join Ginny in her Wednesday Yarn Along. In desperate need of a quick and easy way to relax, in the tiny bits of time I seem to have lately, I have taken up circle granny squares... and I love them. I am using this pattern and really not giving the colors much thought except to outline each one in cream. I am currently reading Perennial Vegetables
I'm off to see what everyone else is stitching and reading!
I opened up the hives a few days ago to see how the girls were getting along in their new honey supers. This is the second super I have added to them both and they are building nicely. Because of human error (I didn't have the hive perfectly level), one hive had a bit of cross comb that I carefully removed... what awe inspiring stuff this is.
A quick bit of one-handed video can be seen here.
Crazy busy days, these. I think this little guy has the right idea. :)
May is certainly here. The garden is taking off and even my late (for us) planted beans are twining and vining. We are eating the blackberries (which are crazy early this year) as fast as they ripen. The pears are coming along nicely, too.
The last couple of days have been quite warm and the bees are working a little harder to keep the hive cool. I have on entrance reducers because one of the hives was being robbed a couple of weeks ago. I walked out to check on them one afternoon and was surprised to see a large cloud of bees frantically trying to get in. Luckily I had ordered a couple of robbing screens when I purchased my equipment (because I am paranoid like that), and after two days, the robbers gave up.
So not only do we have 16 ducklings on our back porch, but we have added two goslings for future flock protectors. The geese are such characters! Here is a bit of video from last Friday... enjoy!
A little before 7am this morning, the post office called to say that our baby Ancona ducks had arrived! Oh, my goodness. They are so sweet!
Happy Wednesday!
So, I go into the barn to get the eggs this morning, and to my surprise not only are there no eggs in the barn nest boxes (I had seen them there earlier while checking the bees), but the two ceramic eggs (for "laying inspiration") that we keep in the nests are gone also! That is when I heard a bit of rustling on the floor in the far corner and looked over to find this greedy fella so filled with eggs (I am guessing both real and fake), that he could not get back through his hole in the floor.
He was quite large (that is yardstick next to him), and a quick email to a Louisiana snake expert identified him as a Texas Rat Snake. They are non-venomous living on a diet of rodents, birds and eggs. But, since we will have ducklings in the barn by next week, we thought relocating him was probably the best plan. :)
We have been trying to add a few fruit trees around the barnyard (protected by poultry netting while small) to hopefully help feed the chickens at some point in the future.Today I planted out a couple of persimmon trees and the one white hen we have (who is by far the tamest of the whole flock) "helped" the entire time, watching very carefully for any grubs or worms that I might turn up. We had lovely chicken-y conversation.
Happy Sunday!
