Avalon1984-Chicken, horses, pigs, oh my!

[Icu4dzs]

OK, so what do you recommend for "disinfection" procedure? I will scrape the wax off and melt it down and keep what I can. It has a lot of uses.
As for the mead, well I love the idea but probably don't have the time and certainly don't have the information as to how to do it.
I am so upset with myself for letting him put those old frames in my brand new hive boxes. It is my own fault and to see my hives dead really upset me. One of them was "weak" but to see the other one like that was awful. I know there was honey left in there. Many of the cells were open and there were bee tails sticking out of them. I really didn't understand what I was seeing but I just brushed all the bees off onto the ground and wept for half an hour.
Fortunately, the other hive is doing fine. I don't think that we put any other frames in that one.
Live and learn, but at such a severe price!
Trim sends
//BT//

 

[Avalon1984]

OK, so what do you recommend for "disinfection" procedure? I will scrape the wax off and melt it down and keep what I can. It has a lot of uses.
As for the mead, well I love the idea but probably don't have the time and certainly don't have the information as to how to do it.
I am so upset with myself for letting him put those old frames in my brand new hive boxes. It is my own fault and to see my hives dead really upset me. One of them was "weak" but to see the other one like that was awful. I know there was honey left in there. Many of the cells were open and there were bee tails sticking out of them. I really didn't understand what I was seeing but I just brushed all the bees off onto the ground and wept for half an hour.
Fortunately, the other hive is doing fine. I don't think that we put any other frames in that one.
Live and learn, but at such a severe price!
Trim sends
//BT//

No need to be angry at yourself Trim, like you said, it is part of learning. Especially with bees, there is no 100% right way to do it. They are complicated beings, just like chickens and horses. The two methods of disinfecting I heard about involved either a power washer, a hot bath in disinfecting agents that are FDA approved ( we may have to do some research there) or use a torch. That is why I was asking what type of foundation you have. I would think the plastic foundation should be able to take the hot both, and maybe even the torch to an extend, but the wax/crimped wire foundation likely will not, you may have to you melt that and get the wire out. I am teaching myself how to do mead right now, doesn't sound too hard (just like everytime I start something new ) but I believe as long as you can find some yeast, yeast food and a perculator (sp?) you should be in business. I will be buying me one today to start my Mead project. I will let you know how it works. In the meantime, focus on strenghtening the hive you have. Feed them, maybe plant some clover and flowers close by. etc. The more you can get them started now, the better. Bees always seem to have that exponential growth going on, so the faster they double in numbers, the faster they quadrouple, etc.

 

[Icu4dzs]

Roger. Understand all. Plastic foundation only.
WILCO
Saepe Expertus, Semper Fidelis, Fratres Aeterni
Trim sends
//BT//

 

[Avalon1984]

Just wanted to wish everybody a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend! Thank you to all who have served this wonderful nation!

 

[Avalon1984]

Ahhhfirst day on the new job is over. Quite overwhelming as expected. It will have to take some getting used to getting back into the 12-14hr days, but it is, what it is. The barn wont pay for itself so it is back to the grindstone for me. The new paycheck wont be as good as what I used to make, but not as bad as what I made being forced to go part time, so I guess that it a good thing. Still planning on paying off the truck this year but it will be tight with all the vet costs associated with getting 4 mares pregnant, plus, hay isnt getting any cheaper.

Hope everybody had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. I went fishing, got done with some long overdue projects and checked on all the mares that our currently gone to the breeders. I miss having them around.

Just got done preparing my leftover honey for making mead tomorrow. I have all my supplies ready, just lacking the energy right now. There are also 20 some Black Copper Maran eggs in the incubator. This will be my 4th try, so maybe I finally will be able to hatch something.

Me go to bed now. I promise I will try and read up on everybody's journal as soon as I get a chance.

 

[the funny farm6]

I gave up on the marans. I only would get a few chicks to hatch per doz. And at 10.00/doz I gave up. Everything else has been hatching real good.

 

[Avalon1984]

I gave up on the marans. I only would get a few chicks to hatch per doz. And at 10.00/doz I gave up. Everything else has been hatching real good.

Same here I am happy to have some birds but would like some replacements here and there, I sure am glad I bought my birds as chicks instead of hatching eggs

 

[Avalon1984]

Short update here again.

Breeding season is dragging on. Quite frustrating to see everybody talk about confirmed pregnancies and here we are with 4 mares, and still no luck. We did all our homework, got everybody cultured, some even had fertility tests done to make sure everything was good and it is. It also can't be the stallion because the poor guy sired more than 18 foals already in 3 years. Well tomorrow we will do an ultrasound on 3 of the 4 for pregnancy so I am keeping my fingers and toes crossed. When will the breeding Gods look down kindly upon us???

Bees are doing good I think. I am well behind on checking on them because our weekends have been filled with building a deck at the family cottage and the dock needs to get put in next week. Since we are the only members of the family who actually want to get it done, versus sitting and complaining about it, it is our luck to put it in. Hopefully after that hubby will finally get to my chicken house #3.

All gardens are put in, my beans are 3" high already and I planted some tomatoes and peppers on top of everything else.

2 more weeks until hopefully my Black Copper Marans hatch.

I finally got to update my farm's website. It was waaayyy outdated. Now it looks sharp and professional again. Took 5hrs on this old computer of mine.

My Mead is percelating (sp). Had some leakage problems with the bucket at first but now it seems to be working. We can hear it bubble inside and some bubbles come out fo the top too. We'll see how it looks like in another week when it is time for bottling.

Hope you are all enjoying the summer.

Busy me go to bed now.

 

[Denim Deb]

I'm now thinking of the witches in Macbeth.

 

[Avalon1984]

thanks Deb

So, I guess the Breeding Gods looked kindly upon us for we are EXPECTING!!!!

Two of our 4 mares came back as in foal, one is 28 days along and one is 18. We are waiting for the one at 18 to be about a month along so that the embryo settles on the uterus wall and doesn't get squeezed out if the mare stresses, then we get to bring those 2 back. #3 is always a difficult one to get pregnant because she has had some uterus problems. #4 we will check next Tuesday. It will be so nice haveing April foals. We can have our own April's Foal day