Lavender Wyandotte - New Chicken Breed On The Farm

 We have a new breed of poultry here on the farm that we're excited to finally share.  We have actually had them since the spring of 2016 when we drove down to Greenfire farm and picked them up, but just as we got them raised up to egg production age, we had an opossum get in their pen and kill all of my hens except for one. 

Birds & The Bees / Hens & Hives / Chickens And Honey Bees

Last week we tackled some much needed bee hive maintenance.  Our hives have always sat back behind the house under some spindly trees.  If you know anything about hives, shade and bee hives aren't a good mix, so we began the task of moving them.

Fall Mushroom Season - Edible Mushrooms Of Illinois

As the poultry season begins to slow down a little, Larry and I find time to sneak off and do something that we love, forage for fungi.  There is nothing more relaxing than getting into the woods and just start walking.

Yesterday morning, I headed out on the four wheeler to cut Bittersweet to fill orders for my Etsy shop, what a great time to also do a little mushroom hunting.
If you love Bittersweet for fall decor head over to the Chicken Scratch Store and get yourself a bouquet.
While cutting the Bittersweet I noticed all around me growing right in the grass was big beautiful Puffball Mushrooms.

Worming, Ear Tags & Vaccinations - Gotland Lambs

Last week we began the process of vaccinations, worming and ear tags for our little lambs.  We have five Gotland lambs so it wasn't a huge job but it was a learning experience for all of us.  We began the process by fencing off a corner of the paddock with a cattle panel and luring the lambs to the corner so that they were easy to catch up.

Coronation Sussex - The Poultry For Royalty

What better way to commemorate the royal wedding than to offer a 30% off sale on the chicken created for royalty so many years ago?  The beautiful Coronation Sussex was created to honor the Coronation of King George.  I like poultry with a history and I think you will too.
This past weekend we watched as the Royal couple Prince Harry and Megan were given the title of Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

Hive Maintenance - Spring Hive Inspection

I always try and do a quick hive inspection in February just to check and see if all the hives have survived the winter.  To my great disappointment this February I discovered that we had lost two hives over the winter months.  We had a very harsh winter this year but I'm not sure if that had anything to do with the hives collapse.  Our spring came really late and from February until May we lost another hive and back in February this hive looked to be healthy. 

We've now had bee hives for about four years, I think, and we're still learning so much about the bees.  Probably one of the hardest lessons learned last summer was don't add a super (or box) onto the hive too far in advance of them needing it.  It's such a fine line, if you wait too long they feel out of space and they'll swarm.  Last year I'm pretty sure I gave a hive a super before they were ready for it and it gave them too much territory to patrol and it allowed wax months to get the upper hand and take over the hive.  That was my fault and I felt terrible about it.

We opened our remaining two hives today.  It's always necessary to smoke the hive before you begin.  Start by puffing smoke into the hive entrance and wait a couple of minuets before opening the hive.  Once you open the hive then give a few puffs of smoke from the top of the open hive.  Maybe you already know all of this information but there could be someone who doesn't know this.  It's taken a lot of painful bee stings before I was able to convenience my husband of this procedure.  It's much less stressful on the hive and the husband if you use smoke.

The hives seemed to be healthy, they're foraging, capping honey and raising brood.  I did see some queen cells being produced in one hive, so it's looking like they will swarm soon.  I need to keep an eye on them, I would like to catch the swarm and start a new hive.

We added new beetle traps to the hives.  I put 2 in each hive, they work very well.  Fill with oil, I use vegetable, or mineral oil.  The bees chase the beetles around and they run to hid in the holes of the trap and drown in the oil.  Hive beetles are probably our worst problem.  Our hives are sitting in a slightly shaded area and really need to be moved into the direct sun, no shade.  Beetles don't like a hot hive.






We opened the hives that collapsed over the winter just to take a look and see if we could tell what had happened.  Each hive had a full box of uneaten honey, so that tells me that they didn't starve.  Some of you more experienced bee keepers, if you have any ideas for us to check for let us know.  We would love to hear what you have to say.

Hive collapse is a serious problem here in the US and we need to do all that we can to help the bees. 

Share your words of wisdom about bee keeping with us, we would love to hear from you.  I'll leave you with these words that I know to be true.

Proverbs 25:16

If you find honey, eat just enough - too much of it, and you will vomit.

Have a blessed day!

Angie

Southern Illinois Water Emergency - Rend Lake Water Crisis

Photo credit, Chris Kays for the Southern

A breach in a 36 inch water pipe yesterday evening has shut down water to several cities and towns across Southern IL.  Residents have been asked to conserve water.  Many business, restaurants, hair salons and schools have been closed until workers can create a bypass for one of the three pumps that service our area.   

As you can imagine this has caused much panic and ciaos through our area as people scramble to the stores to purchase every last bottle and jug of water on the store shelves. 

The tiny town of Dahlgren IL, where two of our children live, will have it's water turned off within the next 2 hours and they aren't sure when it will be up and running again.  Would you be prepared in your home if something like this happened?  It hasn't taken much to shut down half of the water in Southern IL.  We've found that we're not very prepared.  We do have a pond for watering the livestock if needed and I suppose we can boil the water for ourselves.  We can use pond water for flushing toilets also.  What would you do, have you even considered it?  I hadn't until now.

As we sat and thought about how to plan for the next couple of days with the water issue,  we know that we must make preparation for our two incubators and hatchers that have a couple thousand eggs in them.  Our incubators and hatchers require a lot of water to keep the humidity at a constant level.  

This might not seem very important to some flocks but these eggs will be chicks and young pullets that will be shipped out for several weeks and months.  So it's important to us.

We'll be setting large pans of warm water in the bottoms of each unit which should keep the humidity at the correct level but will need to be checked often.  Hopefully they'll get the water back up and running before we need to test this theory but it's not sounding like it. 

Take a moment and make a plan today about what you would do if you wake up in the morning and there is no running water.  If you have a pond, do you have a way to filter that water to make it safe for drinking?  If you don't have a pond where will you get water, it's not as easy as just going to the store, keep in mind the shelves will be bare.

All will be good here on the farm with or without running water, I'm assured of that as I keep this verse in mind.

“But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:14  

Have a blessed day!

Angie