Bees Love Water

I never truly realized how attracted to water bees are. We installed a water collection system on the garage. It allows the water to be funneled into the collection barrels. Sometimes, there is water standing on the tops of these barrels.
Yesterday, our bees discovered this water source... and made FULL use of it.
It was pretty awesome to be able to get so close to them, since bees that are not near the hive are not at all aggressive. I was able to get up close and personal for a few shots. Enjoy!

Honey Harvest 2016

We harvested our honey for the first time this weekend. It was certainly an experience. We've learned a lot about bees in the process too. Roger spent hours researching before he ever cracked the hive.

Once the hive is opened up, there's the removal of the frames. A hive tool is essential for doing this as the bees like to glue those things down nice and tight. 

Then of course you have to get the girls to stop working and drop off the frame.

This is easier said than done. They really like to work, and they're pretty possessive of these frames full of honey. 

A bee brush is a wonderful thing, it helps to move the girls along without harming anyone.

Of course, even after all of that we still had to brush a few off the frames we harvested and cover it all with a towel before they could come inside. I'm just not a fan of honeybees in the kitchen. 

I remember when I was a kid you used to be able to get honey with the comb in it. It was sweet and sticky, and chewy. There was nothing better on a hot summer day than a chunk of comb honey and a tall glass of iced lemonade!

These days all you can find outside of the farmers market or state fair booth is extracted, processed, bland commercial honey. It's nothing like the real thing. For instance, our honey isn't that golden brown color. Nope, this stuff is clear as crystal. Some of the comb is dark, and there are plenty of pollen cells to add color to the mix.

We pulled three frames from the hive, from them we were able to get nearly 12 pounds of pure, sweet, tasty comb honey.

No processing, all we did was scrape the comb from the frame and drop it in the jars.

Once we were finished gathering the frames, we were able to set the hive on the new stand Roger and Charlie made for it.

It was an exciting experience and we learned a lot about how it's going to work here on our farm. We also managed to sell two jars of the stuff before it'd even been out of the hive three hours. Talk about fresh honey!

It seems our little farm has found a way to earn some money, and help us become more sustainable that we were before.

Bunny Explosion!

It's definitely Spring! Two of our lovely rabbit moms have blessed us with great litters.
One of them, Zoe was a test litter just to see if we could add some color to the rabbitry.
We have a lovely little holland lop boy that was purchased as a pet, and then left with us for safe keeping... sooo, since nobody around here eats for free - we put him to work.

So what happens when you cross this guy, with an New Zealand/Californian Mix like this girl?

Sorry for the blur... she was not a willing model when she noticed I was in the next box. 

This is the result of their mating... I'm so amazed/impressed with the beautiful colors. I'm going to gain some lovely pelts from this line!

We've never had a "broken"before, and in this litter we got two!  And just look at those reds?!

Broken gray/black

I'm so excited! 

We even got what I think may be otter colored... 

I love my bunnies!!! 

Farm Happenings

April is always busy around here. We typically have four or five projects going on at the same time.
When we first embarked on this endeavor two years ago, we decided that we preferred to grow food, not lawn. Our plan all along has been to uproot our spacious lawn, and replace it with food for the humans and the bees. For the last two days, Roger has been tilling up two very large garden plots that will be fertilized with rabbit droppings and planted with lots of great food for us and beautiful flowers for the bees.
I've got an entire garden bed dedicated to sunflowers for the beauty, and the ability to feed the whole plant to the rabbits. They basically provide me with free seeds for replanting each year, so it's a true win-win.
Our greenhouse is completely packed with seedlings ready to find homes in the ground... carrots, kale, lettuce, broccoli, spinach, tomatoes, peppers, and a half dozen different kinds of herbs! I'm excited for the garden this year as everything is going in the ground on time, and we'll take advantage of the full growing season this year. Last year, we didn't really get started growing until the end of May and didn't have great luck with some of the stuff.

In other news, we had two brand new litters of rabbits this morning, at least 20 babies. I've got one more doe ready to breed in a couple of weeks and then we'll do one more round of all three girls before summer hits us too hard. We should have our last litter of babies mid July, then nothing more until November. Its just too hot for bunnies to be having babies in the summer around here!

We also welcomed two sheep to the farm... never in a million years did I see myself as a sheep farmer, but here we are... lol They're fiber sheep, and cute as they can be! Pappy (the black) and Patches.

So that's about all for updates right now. Hopefully, we'll post more soon!