Update on Life

I have been chided for not keeping up my blog by the person I warned I would rarely have time to dedicate to it. What can I say, life's busy and I have a hundred things I should be doing instead of sitting here. Oh well, the house will stay messy for one day longer.

Update #1 the dog is still broken. We have now passed the 14 month mark since she originally shattered the leg. I took her into a local vet for a cheap double check x-ray and was devastated by the lack of healing. To me and my small town vet it looked like the bone had hardly regained any calcium in over 7 wks. But the x-rays were sent to her surgeon and he was happy with how they looked. She is still on leash only until at least the4th of June when she goes in for yet another x-ray. At this rate she's going to end up with cancer from all the x-rays.

Update#2 Chickens and ducks. Growing like crazy. The ducks are full sized, chickens about half sized. Everyone is going through their first moult so they all look like bad taxidermy examples right now. They've been very entertaining at times, messy always, stinky occasionally.

The "Free" exotic chick I got with my order has turned out to be a white Cochin Rooster. Hardly a rare bird. From talking to other people the "free" chick McMurray hatchery offers is always, always, always a rooster and since they are hard to sell and usually culled in heavy numbers a good way for McM to unload them. Just a comment not a real complaint. So far I'm good with my roo. Cochins are about as laid back as a chicken breed gets so I doubt I'll have aggression problems with him. We'll see what my opinion is when he starts to crow.

My husband has enjoyed the birds. When he lets them out he usually spend a while communing with them. For some reason the chickens will come perch on him when he's sitting out in their run, but not on me. That doesn't break my heart, I don't like being pooped on.

All in all I'm glad we got them but will be happy when we start getting eggs in a few months.

Update#3 Bees. Well now, they have been interesting. It's been a challenge to keep my hands off the hives and not be bugging them more than once a week. No pun intended. I have the two hives painted with identifying marks to help keep records of them. They are Spot and Stripe.

Right now Spot is just booming. Packed with bees, drawing comb, hauling in pollen and nectar when the weather allows. It was by far the more populace of the two nucs I got by at least 30% so it had a larger mass of workers to start with. They take down about a gallon of 1/1 syrup a week. I've put a second deep on them and they are starting to draw comb on it.

Stripe is far smaller and much slower to get going. It seems healthy and the queen is laying well, so I'm not real concerned. I did pull a frame of capped brood from Spot last weekend and give it to Stripe to help them build a up a little. They are starting to draw out comb and taking syrup at about 1/2 g a week.

My confidence in working them has gone way up. I'm not horribly worried I'm going to screw up bad when I open a hive. I also know the bees better. Stripe is totally mellow and can be worked with nothing but the occasional spritz of sugar water most of the time. Spot gets a little testy and needs smoke to stay calm. Still I was able to shake most of the bees off a frame and put it in Stripe without them getting toooo pissy.

I have yet to put any chemicals in the hive either antibiotics or other treatments. The more I read the less I want to treat unless forced. I have friends who do no treatments and have healthy hives, I have friends who treat heavily and I have one who destroys his bees every fall to start fresh in the spring. They all have their opinions on what works best and I am exploring what works for me.

Right now I am enjoying watching them and being their protector. I need to get up an electric fence before the apples ripen this summer and the bears come back.