She will work to her death...

Did you know a worker bee, which is female, only lives to be 6 to 8 weeks old? This time of year we will often find honeybee workers trying to walk back to their hives because they are at the end of their life cycle. They will literally work themselves to death. The last phase of their lives are as forager bees which they will do until they can't do it any longer. 

This poor girl was trying so hard to get back home to die. I took her up to the hive and let the other bees tend her until she passed. Life as a worker bee is not an easy life.

A new bee suit and an Apiary success!

Yesterday it finally came, my new bee suit! It is triple ventilated and the zipped on veil is big enough to hold all my hair!!!

I was so pleased with all 3 hives! Each package was in good shape. Most frames were either like this, full of brood, eggs or larvae in hive 3!

Currently I have one hive body and a medium hive body on top of that. This hive (hive 2) is already drawing out the frames in the mediums because they have filled the 10 frames of the hive body. If you look close you can see larvae and eggs on this frame, even some capped brood too!

Hive 1 was not to be upstaged by the others with filled brood on their frames. The best thing was starting these bees out with already drawn out frames that gave them an accelerated boost. So excited with todays inspections and I didn't break a sweat in the new suit either!

Although I didn't see any of the queens today, I moved quickly because it was over cast and cool as well as not wanting to upset their natural balance. So a month later the results are good and fingers crossed that it continues.

Finally, it's back!

We have been on pins and needles waiting for our fence charger to be repaired. It stopped working and was still under warranty. With regular bear sightings all around our small yet rural town, we got it back up and hopefully running again!

Bears are becoming one of the biggest problems beekeepers are facing. They can decimate a hive in a matter of minutes and a whole bee yard in no time! So glad to have our charger back!  

I see you!!!

Our baby Angora bunnies are now 2 weeks and as our Granddaughter Scarlett says, "I see you!" Their eyes are open and they are hopping about. They are some of the fattest babies I have ever seen, healthy and active.

Mama Peachy has started putting hay in her nesting box so the babies can begin to start nibbling on the hay. Under there you can see little hops and movement. So our babies are growing and we couldn't be happier!

A Plethora of Eggs!

That's all I can say, we have a plethora of eggs!!! We have more eggs than we know what to do with! Right now we are offering 2 dozen for $5.00! Give us a call or stop by!!!

...and this happened last week!

So this happened last week, Peachy gave birth to 5 beautiful healthy kits. It's finally showing signs of Spring on the farm!

At a day old they are healthy and their colorings are easier to see.

The next day, PJ went to a new home! My friend Theresa lost her precious Benjianna recently. She was so heartbroken that I could hardly bear seeing her so sad. I offered her PJ and she came to meet her and it was love!

Today I tried to check the babies but Peachy is one protective mom! It's not easy getting in there.

A week later, it is clear what colors we have here! 3 Chestnut Agoutis and 2 Fawn Torts! 

So this happened today...

The looks of suspicion, they know what's up! We never lock them down unless some thing is about to happen. Tim even got kicked just as he stood there because they know! 

Our shearers who we have used for many years, Jeremiah and Rick from Twist of Fate arrived on time like clock work and got right to work. Everyone was sheared, had their teeth and hooves clipped, and were wormed.

And of course the last one, our Awan was the screamer! Holding him by the ears actually calmed him down a bit. 

They finished quickly and then the fights ensued. They don't recognize each other after they are sheared. We had one heck of a storm here in Connecticut yesterday so everything was wet but this too shall pass as this happened today... 

Oh be still my heart, fleece!!!

While at the Connecticut Sheep and Wool Festival, as it began I quickly rushed over to the fleece sale. As I walked over this fleece drew me in like a pile of gold! OMG! Just look at the colors! I used every filter I could to get just the right colors but a camera cannot give this fleece justice in it's beauty! So many different colors in here from black, to silver and beautiful sun bleached tips of tans and browns! I can't wait to have some time to spin this beauty up. 

I also picked this fleece up, a gorgeous Gotland that is soft, just enough grease with amazing curls. As Spring cleaning and the countless chores needed to be done around here, I look forward to some time to get to Spinning my beautiful fleece purchases!

The queens are all right!

What do you do when this queen of the hive breaks her zipper in her 10 year old bee suit? Why you have your husband pin and duct tape you in! Look how I even manage to pack all my hair in there! It was inspection day, even as I am feeling under the weather with my yearly Spring Upper Respiratory infection, it had to be done. Tim helped me the best that he could but I had to get in there!

All three hives were doing great! If you look really hard into each cell you will see little rice like things, those are eggs!!! Because the hives were started out with already drawn out comb, they are quickly moving ahead. I found many frames filled with eggs already.

All 3 queens in our newly hived packages are doing great. Hive 3 had not released their queen, instead they encased her cage with propolis. I will need to watch this one because the girls are not bright! Each queen was marked with white this year even though it should be yellow but I refuse to mark yellow this year, who can see it with all the pollen?!  All the queens are big and fat like this girl above. I am quite pleased as we move into the season.