Bees and morels

Today began with checking on the chicks and ducklings.  As I held little Coyote (the blue female runner duck), I looked out the window to see the sky darkening ominously.  I told her that we'd probably get a storm today.  Before the words had left my lips, the skies opened up and dumped a tremendous amount of water on us.  We've had a rainy Spring,  but I haven't seen rain like that since our trip to North Carolina last July... it was incredible.  Honeybunch and I sipped our coffee on the front porch to the crack and rumble of thunder.

As the day went on, I grew anxious for the fact that our bees had not yet arrived.  I called the apiary to make sure they were coming, and he said they'd shipped a day late and should be here by the end of the day tomorrow.  I contented myself with planting rosebushes (thanks Katari!) and blackberries (thanks Herr Burmeister!), hauling away sod, and practicing with my firehoop for Saturday night's performance.  Around 5:00pm, my phone rang.

We picked the honeybees up at the post office right after they called to alert us to their arrival, armed with a spray bottle of sugar syrup.  The postman had his wife and son there checking the bees out, they were as fascinated as we were!

We brought them home, sprayed them generously with sugar syrup again, and let them rest in the barn for a bit over two hours.  Those little ladies on the outside of the box had been clinging to it throughout their journey, as there were no holes in the wire to be seen.

We installed the bees into their new home at dusk without incident.  I made one error, accidentally poking the wooden plug at the "non candy end" of the queen's cage into her enclosure, making a hole through which she could immediately exit.  We found a suitable sized stick to reseal that hole so the workers could eat their way in and have time to accept her as queen before her release. 

As we worked, the little ladies were crawling all over us, licking the sticky sugar syrup from our hands and exploring their new digs.   It went smoothly, and it was fun to see the girls get right down to work, clearing out the dead bees that came out of the box with them and crawling all over the queen's cage and the frames.

While walking in the beautiful woods in the rear of our property... 

Honeybunch found this:

It was a little one, so he put a jar over top of it to let it grow a bit before we harvest.  Tomorrow, we conduct a proper search for its kin... where there's one, there's more.  I cannot believe we have morel mushrooms growing on our land... as if this place needed to be any more perfect!  When we were looking for a home and talking about what we wanted, we'd always add on at the end... "...and it would be nice if there was a good morel patch somewhere too, but that's too much to hope for".  I guess we've been proven wrong!



Early Storm Warning

"Storm's a'comin'!!"

"Huh?"

"Run for the hills, ladies!"

I love April.

No bees yet...

... but there certainly are DUCKLINGS!

They are soft, squishy, cuddly little bundles of joy and I can't get enough of them.  The blue runner ruck is a girl and the fawn/white a boy, and one of each for the Khakis, too.  I'm excited to have the chance to let our ducks and chickens hatch out their own young next year... no more dealing with hatcheries or feed stores, and no more brooders smelling/heating up the spare bedroom!

I took two of the chicks to the vet today along with some stool samples, and they do have coccidiosis.  However, since they've had the vaccine, the vet said that they'll likely "develop immunity" and it shouldn't actually make them "sick"... that the ones who died in the first few days probably died from the exposure from the vaccine and the ones who survived should do fine.  I'm just supposed to keep an eye on them and make sure they're gaining weight.  They're all acting fine, eating and drinking normally, but they feel a little thin, so I'm going to entice them with some treats tonight, me thinks.  I split them into two brooder boxes to give them some more room.

Sigh... if I had known that the vaccine itself was so dangerous, I'd have foregone it and just fed them medicated starter feed like I have in years past.  But, lessons are learned.  Now I just have to see how well the little ones do in the next few weeks.  I was happy to have found this vet, given that the many I called don't deal with birds... and she also works with skunks, so our little Flower girl has a doctor nearby if she ever needs one!

I think I'll bring the chicks out into the yard to get some fresh air and grass on this fine warm Spring day.  Hopefully the weather remains fair tomorrow for the (hopeful) arrival of our honeybees as well!

Tomorrow...

... the bees and ducklings will arrive.  I just called the post office to give them a heads up... the postmaster out here is SO much more accustomed to this sort of thing than the postmaster at our old place!!  The hive is set up down by the apple trees, up on concrete blocks to help keep it off the wet ground.  I've read and reread my instructions for what to do when the package arrives, and what to do when it's time to install them in the hive.  I'm excited, and nervous.  Honeybees were what originally interested me in the whole homesteading/livestock thing... I always found them fascinating, and at 16 years old decided I wanted to be a beekeeper.  I read book after book, falling deeper in love with the little ladies, and now years later I am finally fulfilling that dream. 

The baby chicks don't have a brooder light on at the moment... it's easily 75 to 80 degrees in that room without it on and they appear quite comfortable.  It's been raining like crazy off and on here since Sunday afternoon, and the sticky warm air is making it feel more like June than April.  When the thunderstorms break, the sun beats down powerfully, making the second floor of our house a very warm place to be indeed.  The chicks don't seem to mind, and I don't either with an icy cold margarita in my hand. 

The bad news is that I discovered some bloody poo in the brooder tonight... we'd gotten the chicks vaccinated for Marek's and coccidiosis, but I suspect that the latter has made an appearance anyway.  Maybe that's what did in the three little sick ones who died in the first week?  Who knows.  All I know is that I will NEVER order from McMurray Hatchery ever again.  It's been one nightmare after another with the birds we ordered from them.  I have an appointment with a vet tomorrow morning to get their stool tested.  They're all acting fine, eating and drinking and bouncing off the walls... at least that's a good sign.

I'm sure the warm weather will make the ducklings happy as well, I'm sure.  I'm nervous about raising ducks, as it's a new adventure for us.  I'm hoping there will be enough room in the coop for them to hole up with the chickens... but if not, we'll build them a little duck house near the pond.  We're planning to let them free range, and to just herd them into the coop at night.

Mary, our little Barred Rock, passed the impacted egg mess she was struggling with and is doing just fine now!  She passed a bunch of eggy gook, and then a day or two later we found an egg with no shell at all in the coop, just the membrane.  The next day she laid a normal egg again, and is completely acting herself.  I am so relieved!

I am FINALLY going to get our asparagus crowns into the ground today, come hell or high water.  I just hope that the plants haven't died while waiting for the ground to be prepared.  I'm afraid that the raspberry canes aren't looking too great... they haven't been in the ground long, but I'm not seeing any leafing out happening on them.  The strawberries and blueberries are nice and green, sprouting new leaves all over the place... but I worry for the raspberries.  We'll see, I suppose.

Our housewarming party was a great success, complete with drumming, singing and guitar playing around the fire.  The weather cleared up beautifully and with the help of our friends and logs frm the trees we cut down, we successfully moved the coop from up near the road down to the area with the fenced run.  The variety and quality of the people we know never ceases to amaze me, especially when I see them all working together to accomplish something as tricky as moving a chicken coop on rollers, downhill, in the mud.

The sun is shining and the garden is calling, I hope to update tomorrow with ducks and bees and chicks on their way back to health!

Ready for guests

So far...

...so good!  Little Mary, our Barred Rock Hen, seems to be pulling through.  I am cautiously hopeful that she'll live a long healthy chicken life, despite the eggbound situation that scared us so much on Monday.  She has passed a good amount of the eggy nastiness, and seems to be acting like herself again.  The true test will be if she lays an actual proper egg in the next few days...

Our housewarming/coop moving party is tomorrow, and of course they're calling for rain all damn day.  Moving the coop down the hill so that it is adjacent to the fenced run will be pretty much impossible in the rain, it's muddy down there even when it hasn't rained for three days... but we're debating whether or not to go ahead with the party anyways.  It may feel a little bit crowded in here with everyone inside, but it'll be cozy, right?  It'll just be a shame that our guests can't enjoy the beautiful outdoors while they're here.

Kicking into high gear...

... wooooo-wee, High Spring is a-comin'. 

Our Italian honeybees ship to us on Monday, and my order for the hive extender, pre-formed sugar block, smoker fuel and pollen patties arrived today.  We are planning to go in an a bulk "animal grade" sugar order with some friends for future bee feedings, but this week I just don't have time to mess around with trying to make a sugar block the right size for atop the frames of the hive deep body.  4 ducklings (a male and female pair of Runner ducks and a pair of Khaki Campbells!) also ship to us on Monday.  The little chickies are feathering out and needing to be divided into two brooder boxes to get a bit more room.  The black and red raspberries are in their freshly dug and enriched bed.  The ground was too wet these past two days to break sod on the asparagus bed, and I'm afraid to open up the nursery packaging to see what those roots are looking like.  I'm just crossing my fingers that they keep until I can get them in the ground.

We are planning to have our house-warming/chicken coop moving party on Saturday, but they're wanting thunderstorms all weekend.  We may need to reschedule, given that the inside of the house is not prepared to hold a large group of people yet, and moving a heavy coop on rollers in the mud just doesn't sound like fun.  I surely do hope that the weathermen are wrong this time around, because herding the chickens up and down the hill each morning and evening is going to get old really soon.

Our little barred rock hen, Mary, is eggbound.  She wasn't acting herself last evening, and hadn't laid an egg today... and upon inspection and with some gentle palpation, I found she had a sort of boggy mass in her bottom, some egg yolk/white was coming out of her vent in sporadic bursts.  We took her inside and soaked her in a warm bath (which she seemed to like), dried her off, encouraged her to eat some Fig Newtons, and returned her to the coop to be with her sisters.  I left feeling pretty sure that she'd be unlikely to make it through the night, but when I came home from work this morning she was scratching in the grass with her sisters and acting completely normal.  There was evidence that she'd passed some more eggy goo, but I don't know if she'll work it all out or not.  I'm rooting for her, but there's nothing more we can do but watch and wait to see what happens.  I hope she makes it.

Last night was my final night at my job at the Tiny Community Hospital, and I have off for a good week and a half before starting my job at the Giant Teaching Hospital.  I'm going to sleep in as late as my body wants me to today, no alarm clock for me!!  And then TOMORROW I'll get to work on the rest of the projects that need to be completed!

Too fast

Another weekend gone by.  I don't know how it flew by so quickly.  A massive rainstorm moved in late Saturday morning (while I was planting the last of the strawberries) and hung around until the wee hours of Sunday morning, so we lost most of that day for outdoor work.  But that was okay, as we had not one but TWO birthday parties to attend, and it was kind of nice to take that time to enjoy the company and friends without the guilt of knowing there was garden work to be done. 

However, today was bright, sunny and windy.  The wind is still gusting out there, blowing the dark grey clouds over the full moon.  As the moon rose tonight it went through four costume changes... as it first crested the horizon, it was flamingo pink.  As it rose a little higher, it changed to a lovely peach color... then golden yellow, then finally its usual attire of brilliant white.  Positively gorgeous.

Today I finished double-digging the smallest of the garden beds (3'x17'), mixed in compost and soil acidifier, and planted the Atlantic, Ivanhoe and Herbert blueberry bushes that have been languishing on the front porch for nearly two weeks.  The second bed has our Ozark and Tribute strawberries... and I'm hoping that the massive amount of compost I dug in helps them thrive in what was heavy clay soil.  We broke sod on the third bed (raspberries!), but have not tilled nor enriched that soil.  I'm hoping to finish that tomorrow and get the red and black raspberries in the ground, but we'll see what happens before I go in for my night shift.

We did FINALLY get around to painting the beehive, with the help of my mother and sister (who visited today).   Honeybunch inoculated four big logs we cut from one of the felled trees with reishi and oyster mushroom plugs.  Tomorrow I'll seal up the holes with beeswax, and we'll set them in a moist and shaded place... hopefully in a few months to a year we'll have lots of mushrooms.  We've been growing some indoors (shitake, oyster and pompom) with success, but in very small quantities.  We hope to have a more impressive harvest from the logs.

Aside from all that, we got to enjoy just being alive on this beautiful piece of earth we call home.  The daffodils are popping up all over the place, the chickens are thrilled to be scratching around in the seemingly endless grasses and leaves, and the cats have taken over the cushioned dining room chairs as their own personal nap spaces.  Now if I can get the rasberries, asparagus, apple and cherry trees settled into their niches here on the homestead, we'll all be in good shape!  Happy Sunday!

A woman's hands

Today's temperature was around 80 degrees.  The sun was shining, and as I walked down the hill to the chicken yard I was smiling.  I'd awoken after 5 or 6 hours of daytime sleep (to prepare for my night shift of work) around 4pm, with several hours of gorgeous daylight left in which to work.  How I love the lengthening days of Spring!  After a quick check on the chickies (the remaining babies are vigorous and growing at an alarming rate) and a bit of breakfast, it was time to go about the day's work.

Today I broke sod on another 100 square feet of garden space.  It was hard physical labor with a shovel, but as the chunks of grass piled up on either side of the 4' wide row I was digging, I found myself grinning like an idiot.  We have 12 cubic yards of yummy compost coming our way, and I am pleased to find that even though the soil is on the heavy clay side, the drainage in this area is much better than I thought.  With a good double-digging, we should be able to grow whatever we want there.

While I was working, our neighbor across the way rolled up on his little tractor.  He introduced himself and offered to lend us any tools we need, seems like a very nice older gentleman.  I was happy to make his acquaintance, as I'm curious about our neighbors and missing the sense of community that we had at our apartment.  I love having the  space and the solitude that our property gives us, but I do like knowing who lives near us and that I can knock on their doors if I need a post hole digger or a cup of sugar. 

By the end of the row, I was sweaty, swarmed by gnats, and sore.  I sat on the fence and looked at the reddish brown earth revealed before me.  I looked over my shoulder beyond the greenhouse at our four hens scratching happily in the grass and leaves in their newly fenced run. 

I looked to my right to see the mallard couple (Seamus and Brigid, as we have named them) paddling at a leisurely pace around the pond, and about a dozen turtles sunning themselves on the bank.  The sky was beginning to darken, both because of the approaching dusk and the storm clouds moving in from the west. 

I looked down at my hands, cut up and burnt and dirty as they were, my fingernails trimmed short but still harboring soil from the day's labor.  My hands will never be pretty, well-manicured, soft and delicate like the hands of so many women I know.  This fact used to bother me.  But I realize now that my hands do the work of turning over earth, compressing the chest walls of dying people, scrubbing cast iron with scalding water, comforting the sick, and carrying fire wood.  They may not be pretty, but they do Good Work.

A good weekend of work

We are officially moved out of the apartment and into the house, chickens and all!

This weekend yielded a lot of progress outdoors, but I forgot to take pictures while the sun was up!  We built the first of what will be three chicken runs... this one is 40'x40', and the coop will open up directly into the run.  We are going to put gates on either side of it that open up into two other runs that we have yet to build so that we can rotate the grazing/scratching/pooping that the chickens do.  That will enable the yards to rest and be reseeded with grass every so often.  We want to put some kind of cover over the center yard to make it more predator resistant so that when we want to go away on a weekend, the girls can go in and out of the coop at their leisure without being at risk for getting eaten.  The perimeter fencing is 5; high, dug into the ground about 5", with 8' Tposts dug in about 16". We're debating chicken wire (BIG project, expensive and difficult but the most safe for the girls), fishing line (cheap and easy, but only really effective for hawks), and cargo netting (perhaps a happy medium, but we're not sure what the cost would be).

Honeybunch took a chainsaw to one of the trees we felled, and we hauled the logs into the barn to dry.  We ordered a really nice garden cart from Lehman's, and after today's task we are REALLY looking forward to its arrival. 

I dug the first of the garden beds that will go in the paddock in front of the barn.  We are going to have some compost and top soil delivered, and we're going to mix it in with the native clay soil and build mounded beds.  The paddock area is full sun, and free from the plague of black walnut trees.  We're going to plant our perrenials there (asparagus, strawberries, red and black raspberries, blueberries, blackberries), and still have some room to spare for a small annual veggie garden for this year.  We're going to terrace the hill that the house sits on and make that our large vegetable garden, but we've come to terms with the fact that it probably won't get done this year. 

Inside, it's pretty chaotic, with boxes in various states of unpacking all over the place.  Despite that, it's starting to feel like home.  I've been nesting like crazy.  I've never enjoyed hanging curtains so much before.  There is a lot left to do, as you can see from the messiness of the following photos, but bit by bit we're figuring out where we want things to go and how to best organize each room. 

Honeybunch's workshop/office space, already in use!

The main bathroom... vanity painted white instead of that awful wood... still need to do the light fixture though!

Fish tank is moved in and set up, looks like everyone survived the trip.

The bedroom is coming together nicely, but we need to find a better spot for the shotgun, me thinks :)

10 IKEA wine racks put together by yours truly and filled (mostly) with our homemade wines.

The dining room

Awesome metal shelving unit/baker's rack thingie... will be more organized when we get a hanging pot rack.

Almost all of that stuff on the counter is my spices... newly built spice shelves are stained and drying, waiting to be mounted on the wall next to the window there.

Our fridge :)

One of the things that made me most happy this weekend... I found airtight plastic containers that fit a good amount of flour, sugar etc (our bulk 5 gallon buckets just don't fit in the kitchen anywhere) that fit into the drawers!  Hurray!

That's all I've got for you folks tonight.  I'm sore and sleepy!

Here are the visuals