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| My friend AJ and I were in a dollar store a month ago and came across rolls of burlap for a dollar! I bought two rolls because who can pass up rolls of burlap?! We needed a new sign for our booth when we do fairs so I got started... |
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| with a set of stencils, some elmers glue, a sponge brush and a black sharpie... |
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| a sign was born! This sign will give us the country message we are always trying for! |
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| Well the little hive that has been struggling to be has finally materialized a queen! Evidence was in the cells at my last inspection, if you look you can see eggs and different stages of larvae! This means she took a little break from her mating flight and must have started laying right after my last inspection! |
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| The added brood did not net a new queen so I wondered and there it was down in the lower hive body! So away we go, this hive is off and running! |
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| The baby English Angora bunnies are now 3 weeks old! They are gone from adorable little innocent babies to escape artists! We have mom and babies in a huge dog crate. They have learned to scale the 8 inch nesting box and get out of the cage, over night this has happened! Here is the runt, still tiny but thriving! |
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| Tawny is enjoying her time out from them. Here she is with them cuddling. |
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| A look of all their colors... |
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| A chocolate... |
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| A tort or fawn, the jury is still out on this one... |
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| the runt is an broken chocolate... |
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| an agouti (my favorite!) |
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| a light black... |
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| a baby bunny photo bomb!!! I have held these guys everyday since they were born. They all greet me when I open their cage. I am in love with these sweet little souls! I may have to keep them all! |
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| Our littles angora babies are now 2 1/2 weeks old and I was watching them nibbling here and there. I gave them some pellets and hay and they went right over and checked out the pellets, but the hay was for playing and hiding! Can you find the 4 bunnies in there? |
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| They heard the dog bark downstairs and went right into hiding mode! |
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| Here is the runt on the right next to one of the other babies. It is gaining and growing fast but still not quite caught up. |
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| I work in a Nature Center and am lucky to be able to take care of an Observation Hive there. It often needs to be controlled because it only has 3 1/2 frames of bees. Yesterday I removed 2 frames of bees, brood and brought them home. |
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| So, we will add them to the hive that seems to be fumbling. They raised a queen but she did not return from her breeding flight and even after giving them a frame of brood, they did not rear another queen. |
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| To do this we need to separate the bees from each other for a few days by adding a few sheets of newspaper... |
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| place another hive body on top... |
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| and add the new bees. And then I noticed it! A queen cell with a larvae in it!? Seems like I got this frame out just in time! |
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| So we step back, the bees will chew through the newspaper and unite with each other. By this time the new bees will loose the pheromone that they hold from their previous queen. Hoping for success with this hive one way or another. The one thing this hive has been successful with is drawing out all the frames and producing a lot of honey! |
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| Here they are! Tawny and Fluffer's new little additions! Sadly she lost her first litter a few months ago so at the advice of my breeder friends we tried again with my better success! She had 7 but one was still born. They are 2 weeks old today! |
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| Here they are at 3 days old! It was all I could do to kiss each and every one of them! |
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| At one week old they are getting their colors. Sadly the white one at the bottom passed away and we were not sure why. The runt at the top has had quite a struggle. Tawny would let me hold her twice a day to nurse him sepearatley. |
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| Here they are at 10 days old, look at the one down at the bottom, he's a mutant! It is twice the size of the runt! |
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| Ah matey! We have eyes opening at the 10th day! So cute! |
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| And here they are at two weeks old! They are moving about and being really jumpy when you go in. I am holding them everyday and Tawny is fine with that. She like to get out and run around the room. |
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| The runt is at the top, rallying and doing well. Getting bigger everyday and nursing on it's own too! |
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| They are too cute for words! They get kisses everyday!!! |
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| We sure do!!! Our first harvest of pollen was quite plentiful! This was from the small hive that was a split last month! |
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| A close up of how beautiful those little beauty's are! Pollen is great for using in allergies, skin care, and other ailments too! We will have this available soon! |
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| So, I did an inspection on the hive I started on May 20th. It was a split from an Observation Hive. They had queen cells that had emerged but no sight of a queen or any evidence that they had one. The hive was very docile but no eggs. However there still could be a queen, just a little soon to tell, but i am not taking any chances. I added a frame of brood from another hive, lots of eggs, larvae and capped brood as you can see above. |
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| This is the other side of the frame. The little white worm looking thinks are baby honeybees in their larvae stage, the other are capped baby bees! So we give a few days, go back in and see what we have there! |
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| A lot of work has been going on around here, and among them are tree trimming and clearing. That nets yummy treats for the gang! |
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| Teddy, (the fawn one in the center), actually was wearing the branches! He kicks them and pushes them around as he eats the tender leaves. |
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| Cyrus was in his glory... |
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| and Pru, she could hardly contain herself! Enrichment is so easy with these guys! Just some branches and some leaves to make an afternoon just fun and tasty too! |
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| Well, well, well! We have 18 chickens and got 9 eggs today! I believe we have some slackers among us and believe it is time to have a meeting with these girls! I mean, yes it's raining and cold today, but really!!! |
