A Sea of Bee Balm!

 My favorite flower of summer is Bee Balm, hands down. It is so beautiful and blooms around the 4th and all throughout July. I planted a garden of it some years ago in our driveway and it has thrived.

When I was out taking these pictures I found a few species of bumblebees, this is a large one busy at work...

 and then I looked over and saw a very rare Hummingbird Moth hovering about drinking some nectar from the flowers! There were also honeybees, butterflies, hummingbirds and smaller bees partaking in the feast as well.

Such a beautiful perennial flower also known as Horse Mint, Monarda, Bergamont and  Oswega Mint . The Native Indians used it for a medicinal plant as well as teas. If you plant it, give it room to take over, it loves to spread out and share it's beauty!

How everyone is keeping cool in this heat!

 Here in Connecticut the temps have been in the 90's for days with high humidity. I walked around today and observed and helped some of our farm residents to stay cool. The bees "bearded" outside the hive...

 they even hung out under the telescoping cover to stay cool. If the bees are hot than it's hot!

 I caught the bees collecting water to help cool down the hives in this extra chicken water bowl. I have been filling it up diligently as they deplete it, which is just about daily...

 The chickens are panting and trying to stay cool. I caught these two wandering trying to find a place to get cool...

 and then I found these little ladies in the greenhouse making a mess throwing dirt on themselves to stay cool.

 The bees got a special treat today of sugar water and Honey-B-Healthy. I put these out around 1 p.m. and they were sucked down dry in 4 hours!

 The Alpacas enjoyed a spray down and enjoyed every moment of it! They kept coming back for more...

 and more and more! Even "Garth" our Suri who doesn't go for this stuff enjoyed the hose!

 The sheep, well bring on the hay and they completely forget about the heat!

 The fish in the pond are even a bit lethargic with water as warm as bath water. They just lay there floating, however we have witnessed a lot of breeding so the baby fish will be along soon.

 Even Honey Bunny got a bath and a day of beauty to cool down today. She actually enjoyed her bath sitting in the water and letting me clean her. Later she got brushed and trimmed so she can better deal with the heat.

 Autumn caught a nap from a hot day of helping with farm chores and watch duty...

but never fear Zoe was on the job while she slept staying cool. Stay cool everyone and enjoy the summer!

Making Lavender Salves

 During the heat of the summer, I can't even think of anything fiber! So, I look to my other passion, working and making herbal stuff. With just these items...

and my little double boiler, set on low simmer to heat the oils safely and evenly. If the beeswax doesn't melt down completely it will become clumpy.

Here is the finished product, so simple and so wonderful! It makes such a soft salve, a great gift and will be available in our farmstand.

We're in the "Red" with our queens!

 This year is the color red for the marking of the queens. Our new split has successfully raised their queen and she has been marked and is doing well.

She has begun laying at a rapid pace and I am very happy with her progress. If you look really close into the cells you can see the eggs that have been layed and in a few days they will cap them. Our over wintered hive (hive #1)is growing rapidly and making honey. Hive #2 is our new split and hive #3 is our new package which is doing very well and they have settled in and the queen is laying away. Today we made a new split from the Nature Center hive which will be hive #4. That hive will be encouraged to produce pollen and has been placed on a pollen collector. So all and all the bees are fairing well and we are on our way to a great bee season!

Wild Edibles, Yum!!!

 Wow this is our 300th post! So what a better way to celebrate than to  share some wild edibles! One of my favorite teas is Sassafras Tea. The best way is to harvest the roots of the small sprouts, clean, dry and then boil in hot water, steep, strain and add coconut sugar to sweeten.

 The next is Garlic Mustard Pesto that my friend Scott turned me onto last year. It grows wild and is free! It's an invasive species so why not pick a bunch for your lunch!
 In the picture to the right, is what it looks like in the first year of growth. The flavor is really in the second year of growth...

 This is what it looks like in the second year, taller and the tops are seed pods. When you harvest this don't put it in a compost, discard or burn, we have enough growing.

 Often it will have white tiny flowers and will smell of garlic and slight mustard all at the same time!

 So pick as much as you want to make. It can be frozen and used at another date after processing.

 Wash it and strain it. Pick the leaves off the stems, however you can include some stems, there is flavor there too!

I put the leaves into a food processor, added some garlic, Parmesan cheese, sea salt and fresh ground pepper and there you got it, Garlic Mustard Pesto harvested from the weeds growing wild in my yard! it is good to freeze, serve to friends who stop by on crackers or over pasta! Yum!

A Rabbit Grooming adventure!

 So last week we had record setting temperatures and I was looking at "Honey Bunny" and realizing she was not doing well with the heat. Her coat was so dense and thick. I asked her breeder if I could clip her and got the okay. I had also looked up on-line and it was suggested to give her a bath...

 so I did! At first she acted out in full terror, but with some comforting strokes and words, the warm water and the feeling of relief from the heat she calmed down and seemed to enjoy it.

There she is! Finally getting a chance to see her beautiful eyes was a treat. Once she was dried I cool blew her coat out...

 and proceeded to clip her in full terror that I would make a mistake and cut her. I watched countless videos on "how-to" on-line. I am pleased to say all went well, she can see and is now short and comfortable for the summer!

 Honestly she looks better but this was while in the process of clipping. She is such a busy girl, moving here and there, checking out this and that.

I did net some nice fiber from her and look forward to spinning it soon!

We're on our way!

It has begun! We added the super onto our hive last week and they have already begun making harvesting honey! We should have some honey in a month or two! Some of the frames are blank with foundation so we will have comb honey as well! What a perfect Spring we are having with tons of pollen and nectar flow!

The Hive and "the ladies" update...

 So I have been watching my over wintered hive closely because this is the time of year they like to swarm and upon an inspection I found swarm cells...

 with little baby queens in them, every last one of them. If you look closely you will see a baby queen surrounded by royal jelly. That is the substance they feed them to make a queen.

 This is just another shot of the queen. I moved the cell a bit to get a look inside and managed to rip it, they quickly began to tend her.

I find this very unacceptable when I am finding frames of brood that look like this through out the hive, so I made a split. I took the superseder queen cells, put them in a nuc box along with this frame of brood. Closed them up inside for a couple of days. I then also added a frame of honey I had left over from last year. After a few days I opened it up, installed a feeder onto the front and sat back and watched...update to come!

Spinning Angora goodness...

My obsession with Angora rabbit fiber has had me spinning my secret stash that I had purchased here and there, buying it on line and plucking from "Honey" bunny whenever I can...

this has also had me practicing with her on my lap as I spin. She does so good, she loves to just sit there and enjoys the bonding. She is so sweet and gentle.

Guilty as charged!

Sorry for the absence, after loosing our two dogs I was sitting on the couch with "Honey" our bunny and she chewed thru the laptop cord. Look deep into that hairball, she is so naughty! We ordered a new cord and are now back on line! I have a lot of post to come and I am learning a lot about her and the fact that a house bunny needs boundaries!

Such a sad sad loss today...

Today we lost two members of the Coon Hollow Farm security team. Our beloved "Jesse" (second from the left) and "Charlie" (third from the left). They both came to us years ago as rescues with broken stories of abuse. We are beyond heartbroken but age was not on their sides. Such beautiful souls that touched our hearts and made life a much better place because they were in them. We will miss them terribly. Our farm has been through a lot of loss lately but the hardest ones have been loosing these two wonderful souls...

Tools of the beekeeper

 I am lucky enough as a beekeeper to have an observation hive I manage at the Nature Center where I work. The queen in there is going on her 3rd year!

 The queen in there is amazing. These bees have a whole Nature Center to forage in, pesticide free and are incredibly healthy! In this picture you can see a whole frame of brood (baby bees).

 The secret to these are very different than the Langstroth hives. They have 3 1/2 frames and have to be constantly emptied. I just recently had to take some bees out and placed them in this Nuc hive, tape it up and bring them home to my hive.

The hive that I wintered over was struggling to rebound from the winter and even though I did find brood, adding more brood was certainly a plus for this hive.

 I emptied the new bees into the hive, but first I had to reverse the frames because the queen was in the upper chamber. By doing this it puts the hive in a more natural state.

I then placed newspaper over the older bees, put the second hive body on top and added the new bees. This gives the old bees a safe haven and the new bees a chance to accept the older bees and the queen. They will begin to accept her pheromones and chew thru the newspaper to get to her and take care of her. At this point the hive will merge and become stronger. I will post an update next week on the results!