The bees and the mites

One thing a beekeeper faces in this day and age is the relentless killer, the Varroe Mite. This mite was first discovered in 1987, was brought here from Europe and has reeked havoc on our honeybee population ever since. Setting up a treatment protocol is a beekeepers best defense against this deadly killer of our honeybee populations. Treatments are improving all the time but while doing my research it seems that a staggered approach as well as using a variety of methods is best not to allow the mites to build up resistance to one treatment type.

The formic acid treatment is our first treatment followed by two others staggered over time.

Our approah to this is so we can see frames like this one, a healthy queen and her healthy brood! 

A triple win of Fiber!

On a previous post I featured some blending I was trying with three fibers. I blended an Icelandic, black angora rabbit and white alpaca in this fine batt. It was a whole fleece of the Icelandic fleece with a whole angora rabbit fleece and a bunch of alpaca blended as it went on the drum carder.

If you look really close, you can see the guard hairs that are casting off the spun yarn. These are the guard hairs of the Icelandic fleece that were on the top of the fleece. This fleece had black guard hairs as well as a gray under coat which although somewhat on the coarse side, gave it a soft texture too.

I did not weigh the fleece prior to spinning but it did fill (after picture was taken) a whole Ashford Country Spinner spool! The weight of the yarns equaled 35.1 ounces, so in reality 3 pounds, 3 ounces! It was spun in bulky weight so it netted 428 yards of handspun yarn! The small white spool is to show a size comparison to the size of the big spool and yarn. 

Sadly once again, the picture just doesn't do it justice! This yarn along with the many others will be available so far at the only show that has not been cancelled, the New England Fiber Festival in Massachusetts in November. Covid19 has done a number on many Fiber Artist as well as other businesses. My hope is to see a back to normal one day. We may reopen our Etsy shop, but time will tell.

Who's the Boss of the Barnyard you ask?

I'm often asked who is the boss out of all the animals we have. I usually chuckle because of course it's me, but Pru runs a fast second. She commands control of the feed trough and has no problem with telling the alpacas that under no circumstances will she put up with their nonsense. She has no problem butting them and if need be using her horns to get her point across.

Of course Maddie, who is on the left here has no problem being assertive as well. So the answer to the question would be the two old lady Angora goats, they are the boss of the barnyard!

Only Teddy...

Every morning without fail, I open the feed bin, turn for the bucket, turn back and I will find Teddy head first in the grain. I usually take the scoop and fill the feed bucket working around old Teddy.

I just don't have the heart to close the gate on him. It's as if the grain in the bin taste so much better than the hay in the feed dishes. 

I fill the buckets for the others and he's still going at it! I save some for him and put his portion in the trough. Once that's done he takes his focus and locks it right onto the new grain that has been poured, as if that's even better  He is so predictable this guy.

I got this shot of Teddy and it just sums him up...munching away with not a care in the world. Only Teddy, you gotta love him!

What do you do?

What do you do when your one year old Lavender Orphington rooster decides he's going to start being a jerk and make a run for you say? You pick him up, carry him around and give him kisses! This can usually break them of that male driven protectiveness. You have to change their mind into self protection, not protecting the girls. If they associate you with contact they don't want, this can usually change the way they see you.

One thing that saddens me is when I see people who don't understand this behavior or how to break it and the young rooster will be destined for the soup pot or rehomed. This can take a one time solution or a few but eventually he will get it!

Trouble in the Barnyard

Look at this face, warm, sweet, beautiful...nope he's a trouble maker! Lately the once sweet Norman has taken to being quite the leader of trouble in the barnyard! He is currently 10 years old and we are quite baffled at what is prompting it. Has he realized that being a nice guy gets him no where? Has he decided that he is getting older and needs to start sowing some wild oats? Is he going through a mid age crisis? Is he bored with the way of life around here? Who knows? But it better stop! 

Lately he picks someone to pick on and it's on, but he has decided to form a gang! Cyrus on the left, with Norman center and Awan on the right! Yeah this isn't happening guys! No violence on the farm! 

So, currently Winchester (left) and Teddy (right) are separated from the marauding gang of 2 and their leader! These 2 are the most gentle souls we have here. Garth who is not pictured has decided to stay away from it all and I find him on the hill holding sentry duty as he should, not getting involved. If this continues we may need to get the Vet out here to take away one trouble makers trouble making things that may or may not be causing this!

Blending fibery goodness~!

In the time I have had while out of work, I've been putting this time in to get through my fiber stash. I had a beautiful black Icelandic fleece that I picked up last November at the New England Fiber Festival. It was soft but a bit coarse all at the same time. So it needed a blend that would keep the beautiful colors in but compliment it all at the same time. I chose a black angora rabbit fleece and combined it with some white alpaca to give it a nice soft texture and add some color differences. It has true black, grays of different shades and white.

These two photos don't really give the Icelandic fleece justice in it's beauty!

After the blend! It is so beautiful! This was pulling the first blend off of the drum carder, it beat my expectations!

I wish pictures gave a see and touch mode, it is so soft and so pretty! 

Trying to get it in the light, honestly I am so pleased!

So now to decide what to do with it, spin it up or bag it for sale as a spinning fleece or make punis out of it, hmmmm decisions, decisions! One thing I do know, as of right now the New England Fiber Festival is planning to go on as scheduled in November (see our schedule on the sidebar), it will be there for purchase, possibly in many forms!

Twisted together...

My favorite boy "Teddy" and...

the always mighty "Awan"...

and their amazing fiber...

each twisted into it's own yarn...

have come together to make one of my favorite yarns!

Plyed onto a spool...

to make this incredibly soft and natural colored yarn. 

Sadly the camera does not do the colors justice here. During this down time I have been spinning between all the other Spring tasks while still working from home. We are still holding out hope that the New England Fiber Festival in Massachusetts will still go on as schedule. Yesterday the NY Sheep and Wool Festival announced they are cancelling their October show, fingers crossed for the November show to go on as scheduled. We have taken a huge hit with Covid19 as many other farms have.  

Working for the farm today

There was suspicion in the barn yard this morning, they knew something was up and sent Awan out to check it out. It was shearing day and they quickly figured it out. It's old hat for them as we figured out that this is our 12th year of shearing!

Our shearers, Jeremiah (left) and Rick (right) arrived promptly at 8:00 am and went right to work. The usual screaming, spitting, kicking went on while some just took their shearing with grace like Pru and Maddie.

They have their summer do's, paid the shearers and went right to work...

on this! While they took all our fleeces for this year and last for processing, they brought the past two years of Teddy! I got right to work!

I made kits and got some of the fiber right on the spinning wheel to be plyed with a darker alpaca. Stay tuned for some new wool and 

fiber blending combinations for some new yarns!

Our little farm hands...what could happen?

Our little farm hands, Scarlett and Noah were here for a day of fun on the farm. Here they are so excited to go in and collect eggs from the chickens. What could happen when a 4 and 3 year old collect eggs you ask? Well...

Scarlett gives Grandpa her eggs as he waits at the bottom of the hill. "Here you go Grandpa" was heard. She was so proud of her eggs as she handed them off. She has been working very hard on her fear of the chickens.

Here Noah gives "Uncle" his proudly collected eggs. He was confident and sure of his skill as an egg collector! Not a word muttered as he handed over his days collection.

Soooooooo, when you get cracked eggs, you make scrambled eggs, right?!!!!! We will need to work on our finesse on how we gently place the eggs in the basket. They had fun and their pride in their daily choir was so cute.

Celebrating World Bee Day!

Happy World Bee Day! A day put aside for the world to recognize the importance of our pollinator, the bee! To honor the day I decided to do I quick inspection and check how all were doing. This was quite interesting as I inspected Hive #5, I noticed they re building comb tilted upwards slightly. It's actually sideways but still interesting to see them building comb in a slightly elevated direction.

My goal today was to mark the queens and I grabbed this new queen marking cage I bought last year. It is a wonderful tool in theory but failed to keep the queen in a stationary position to mark. It was like marking a moving target. It was easier to get her in to but did not give you the ability to keep her in position to mark.

So needless to say, she was marked on her back and her wings! I am not happy and may not attempt to mark them any longer. So, Happy World Bee Day everyone! Remember to treat our pollinators well, our food system relies on them!

Repurposing for a cause

As I added another hive to our apiary, the equipment I had on hand sufficed, except one component. I really love these top feeders which were put out by Brushy Mountain Bee Company that has gone out of business. I put a post up on some local beekeeping sites that I was looking for a couple of these and got responses. Some as far as South Carolina, but I was looking for more local. A man responded that he had two he didn't want so Tim drove me down to meet him. They were exactly what I was looking for. They are a little weathered but with a little TLC, they would look great in no time. 

A couple coats of paint and they look good as new!

Placed on top of this hive and we are ready to go! This hive is empty, as we often do in the event we get a swarm call or one of our hives decides they are going to swarm. 

Movin' on up!

Well it was time, time for the babies to move up to one of the chicken coops. They were quickly running out of room in the brooder.  Autumn was quite concerned and supervised every moment of the move. Nothing goes awry under her watch!

Here is Autumn as if to say," blah more animals to watch over!"

It appears out of the Black Copper Marans we have one rooster. Out of 4 that's good! I was worried we would have 4 roosters due to straight run. At first I thought it was 2 and 2 so I am pleased with the stats! These are beautiful chickens and our first feathered legged ones!

They are set up for comfort, food, water and their chick plate to keep warm at night. They will have more than ample room to grow and will spend the next month at least in this space before they can go into a small run area. Last years chicks have been kicked out of this one and moved to the larger coop, they were not too happy, but by day two they know where to roost and lay their eggs now. I am finding random eggs in weird places but that too will pass.

In they went, they were a little afraid for the time being of their new surroundings but once I closed the door and opened the window I saw them peaking out. They are fascinated with the older chickens. The legbars are in front here, they are sure turning out beautiful. The others are hiding behind the Marans, but in no time they are adjusting. Tim is happy to get his work bench back too!