Yet another passing on the farm...

Yet another one of our beloved animals has passed away this year, we sure have had a very bad year. Our wether "Scar" passed away this week. The picture on the left is him getting sheared and he is in the picture on the right in the right hand corner. He had gotten rot under his skin back in the winter and just would not stop rubbing it. We tried everything to keep it at bay and from not getting infected. Untimatley we had to put him down due to maggot infestation. In all my years working with animals and wildlife, of for which I am accustomed to seeing regularly, I had never seen anything like this before, they we everywhere. He would not eat or drink and we thought it best to have my friend, Dr Brown come by and put him down. He was the sweetest most gentlest of all our animals and we will miss him... 

New Needle Felted Necklace Pendants

New in our farmstand is our new Needle Felted Necklace Pendants. They are made with both alpaca and wool, dyed in different colors. As you can see no two are the same. You can also interchange them on a chain or something else you may have. I am trying all kinds of different color combos, as well as shapes and designs, but for now I having fun playing around with these.

Vacation=Skirting wool and building bee hives=priceless

How do you spend your vacation? On the beach, camping, whatever. Well here we always have so much needed chores to get to. The picture on the right is a bee hive under construction and being painted. This will be our third bee hive which is already being established on the "bee hill". I am hoping to check it tomorrow and see if our queen has emerged from her queen cell.

The other pictures are of the wool from the sheep that we are "skirting". That is a term for picking the bad stuff and the "poop" out of it. The picture showing my fingers, if you look close enough you can see the lanolin. The fleece is soaked in it.

Don't worry though we are planning a few things to do on vacation for fun!

Chickens first outing!

Here are the chickens on their first outing from the enclosure. They were a bit apprehensive at first, but that turned into curiosity quickly. They were fascinated with my garden beds and scratched, ate bugs and took a few tasty bites of grass. Tim and I played protective mom and dad and the dogs sat watch over them as well.

Success! A new hive

My attempt at a split to make another hive appears to "bee" succesfull! I kept the nuc hive in the basement for a full week which was a little longer than I should have but it seems to have worked. As soon as I opened up the base, they came out in a furry, many of them made off for a good bathroom flight while some just checked the outer part of the hive out. I did not take a chance to open it up quite yet, a hive tends to be a bit aggressive while they are raising a new queen and with a 90 degree day I am not about to put the bee suit on. I will give this some time and see how well it has worked out in a couple of days.

Beginning a new bee hive

In this picture is what is known as a nuc box. It is a smaller version of a bee hive and is used for capturing swarms as well as starting a new hive. Today I placed a few frames of brood (baby bees), honey and empty frames. They will remain in here for about a week in my cool basement. They are taped and locked in here, and this will trigger them to raise a new queen. In two weeks I will put them in a new hive body and hope to start a new hive. This is my first time trying this so I am excited to see what happens, as I continue to evolve in my bee keeping efforts I learn and also hit my more experienced bee keepers friends with advice. Thanks to David and Ralph who always seem to have the answers to my questions!

Today I also was able to locate both my queens and mark them. I attended a class recently with the "Backyard Beekeepers Association of Ct" and learned how to locate and mark the queens. I was excited because it was done with little effort on my part and all because of the techniques I learned from them!