It worked! The bees made it!

I got up early this morning, ran up to let the chickens out and checked the bees, no one was flying. The temperatures were forecast to be in the 60's. I went up and went up, still no flying, I tapped on the hives and to my wondering ears, I heard buzzing! Patiently I waited until about 11:00 am until I saw the first bee come out for a cleansing flight! I suited up, got some pollen patties ready to put in and went up to take a look!

The hive that we lost in December was loaded with honey so I pulled a few frames to put into the two surviving hives.

 I opened the first hive to see these beautiful girls! It appears putting the shavings in the feeders absorbed a lot of condensation. As I removed it and tipped it a lot of liquid came out. The condensation dripped onto the shavings, the candy board sugar too giving the bees something sweet to pick on.

When the feeder was removed it revealed a big beautiful cluster of sweet healthy girls! I did a quick inspection and found the queen who was unmarked because they had re-queened in late fall. I quickly caught and marked her. The second hive netted a bigger even larger batch of bees! We are looking good for honey bee keeping season!

Oh my Garth!

After a night of rough storms all I could say was "oh my!" when I went down to the barnyard! Garth's beautiful fiber was soaked and full of leaves and debris. We did not shear him last year so he could get a nice long staple grown. Tomorrow is all about getting dried off and brushed out!

We are back in eggs!

We are back in eggs! The girls are laying at an amazing rate! About 2 dozen a day,we are running out of room to put them! The chickens are singing their egg song in three part harmony daily!

Excuse my absence...but...

I have a baby shower to plan!!! I have been a bit busy getting ready for our new grand child to arrive. Today was a snow day so I got busy beginning the process of making the shower favors. I began making soap with some lye water...

and some measured olive and coconut oils as well as vegetable shortening...

got my temperatures right and combined the two, stired and stired and stired creating Saponification.

added up some lavender and lavender oil...

and there we are! Lavender soap which is baby's mama Sarah's favorite as well as mine! Stay tuned, I am piecing together a beautiful gift for the baby and will get back to farm news soon!