Lorihadams-- hi guys...been busy!

[Henrietta23]

I still have all my Anne of Green Gables. Loved them more than any other books I ever read. Two of them were purchased on PEI, one my grandmother the summer I was born, as soon as she knew I was a girl, and the other by me on the day Elvis died!

 

[Up-the-Creek]

Hi Lori! Thought I would pop in and say hello. I am so happy to hear things are going so well for you and your family. The kids really like mom to read to them,..I read every night to my little girl. We have read many books but her favorites so far are the Ramona books and her children's bible.

 

[keljonma]

Our kids and grands loved the Nate The Great series (easy readers) by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat.

http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/natethegreat/

 

[lorihadams]

Cool ideas guys....when I took my children's lit and young adult lit classes in college I went to the used book store and found most of the books on the suggested reading list and bought them up. I still have them in bins at my mom's house in her garage. Gonna have to go over there this weekend and get some of them.

Alot of the newer books for kids are just ridiculous. There are no plots or lessons really and the language, are you kidding me? My children are not allowed to say the word stupid. Nowadays it is in all the childrens books....ridiculous. Any time I see it I change it to silly.

I just signed up for the Simply Charlotte Mason website stuff so that should give me some good ideas too.

 

[keljonma]

Hey, I forgot to mention that you might be able to find a video/dvd series in your library called Introduction to Bees by Ed Weiss. I recommend this one.

 

[Icu4dzs]

rescued a husband from having to run electricity to his wife's coop for the winter by explaining the deep litter method to him.

As someone who has been contemplating the 200+ foot trench from the source to the chicken coop, I would be most grateful for the explanation of the "deep litter method".
What does it do? Keep water warm? What kind of litter are we talking about here?

While on the subject of chickens (yes, I know this was supposed to be about bee keeping...see below) I have begun to see something odd. My Light Brahma's are beginning to lay little tiny eggs about the size of pigeon eggs. This just started a few weeks ago. I know it has been warmer than usual here but while discussing this in front of one of the cashiers at the local grocery whose parents keep chickens, she told me her hens have been doing the same thing. She doesn't know why but postulates it has to do with the heat. Does anyone out there have any insight into why my hens are laying small eggs?

Back to bee keeping...

I just bought a "starter kit" for bee keeping from a place in Minnesota so I am also interested in knowing what I need to do other than read the book they sent and follow its' directions.
Bee Keeping is popular here in SDAK but most of them are "big" operations. I just want to do enough to satisfy my baking and household needs.
How many supers would I need to supply my own needs rather than go into business?

Thanks for your help. I did see a couple of the resources listed here and will run to the library for the video...since I am more of a visual learner than reader...

Signed
Tired of Frozen chicken water in winter

 

[lorihadams]

The deep litter method has to do with the shavings/straw bedding you have in the bottom of the coop. If you start off with a light layer and just keep adding to it every few days and maybe stir it a little then let it build up it will definitely keep them warmer in the winter and the smell is not bad at all because you constantly add fresh litter. I throughly clean out my coop 2-3 times a year. That's it.

As for frozen waterers....I went to TSC and got a big rubber bowl and use that in the winter. If it freezes then you just turn it over and stomp on it and add new water. You cannot destroy these bowls. I change water twice a day in the winter time cause our temps here usually hover around freezing so it isn't too bad. Last year was really cold, in the single digits. I was changing water 3-4 times a day. It usually isn't that bad though. The rabbit waterers were the worst but I keep a spare in the house to let it thaw and then switch out the frozen one for the thawed one.

As far as bees go....I know NOTHING. I am going to the meeting Thursday night cause I am literally starting from scratch but my great-granddaddy kept bees so I feel like I should help carry on the tradition. I just found out that I may actually be able to get some of his old hives from a cousin that rescued them from the property!!!

 

[justusnak]

rescued a husband from having to run electricity to his wife's coop for the winter by explaining the deep litter method to him.

As someone who has been contemplating the 200+ foot trench from the source to the chicken coop, I would be most grateful for the explanation of the "deep litter method".
What does it do? Keep water warm? What kind of litter are we talking about here?

While on the subject of chickens (yes, I know this was supposed to be about bee keeping...see below) I have begun to see something odd. My Light Brahma's are beginning to lay little tiny eggs about the size of pigeon eggs. This just started a few weeks ago. I know it has been warmer than usual here but while discussing this in front of one of the cashiers at the local grocery whose parents keep chickens, she told me her hens have been doing the same thing. She doesn't know why but postulates it has to do with the heat. Does anyone out there have any insight into why my hens are laying small eggs?

Signed
Tired of Frozen chicken water in winter

This is what we do...for the deep litter method. Right about july, I clean out the coops. ( yes, I have several) This we spread in thier runs. ( I will explain later) I start with a good thick layer of pine shaveings.....Once a month, I will add a fresh layer to this....and throw in a few handfulls of scratch grains. Let those chickens do the work! They will stir it all up, and good! I do this through the winter. Come April, I clean the coops again, throwing it all in the runs. With adding fresh once a month, letting the chickens stir it...it almost composts. Creating the heat.
Now, the stuff I threw in the runs...has had all winter to set, and compost really well. Once it starts drying out, I start throwing the scratch grains in the runs. The chickens will turn the old stuff pretty well. Come May/June...the yards are turned, and composted well. Then I get in there, and dig out all of the rich brown compost....for the garden. And, we start all over again!
For the waters....those rubber bowls work great....however, we have electric in the coops...so I made heaters for thier metal waterers. I used a cookie tin...about 2-3 inches deep...and roughly 6 to 8 inches across. I get them at the goodwill for .25 cents. Then same place, goodwill, I bought those candle lights for your windows...make a hole in the tin, insert candle, put electrical tape around the candle and hole to hold it in place.....set them up on a cynder block....and put the waterers on top. They are toasty warm, and MOST of the time keep the waterers from freezing.
Didnt meant to hijack your thread Lori...congrats on getting Bees! I wanted to get some, but I am just too scared, and hubby is allergic.
:/

ETA. Im thinking the smallish eggs are because of the hens moulting.

 

[Farmfresh]

As for frozen waterers....I went to TSC and got a big rubber bowl and use that in the winter.

They are called Forteflex bowls and I love them too. Being black they tend to absorb sunlight in the winter and I think that helps keep the water from freezing less often as well.

 

[lorihadams]

Well....lots going on, granny has surgery (knee replacement) tomorrow and we got a phone call last night apparantly, hubby left his phone in the car, and our friend B down the street fell. Her friend K broke her wrist trying to help get her up. Hubby is kicking himself over this one.

We're going to see K tonight sometime and she is going to talk about some stuff that we need to know. B has had to have to veins taken out and put in her leg cause of circulation problems. She is also a former smoker (I hope she isn't still doing it) and seems like she stays with bronchitis. She has been so sick the last few times we have wanted to go see her that I didn't go cause of the kids. Partly cause I didn't want them to bother her and partly cause I didn't want them getting sick either.

Her deadbeat son is the one that did the work on the shed lean-tos for us. He keeps hitting her up for money so we figured if we hired him and paid him for a while then he would leave her alone for a bit. Yeah, wishful thinking. I have a feeling K is going to give us an earful tonight.

On a lighter note, we went last night and got 4 white dogwood trees for the front yard, 3 thornless blackberry bushes for the kids, all the stain for the front and back decks and shed/lean-tos, and patio pavers for the areas in front of the deck steps. We want to get something down before the weather gets bad and we keep tracking mud up the steps so we really needed some sort of transition there to keep the mess down.

We got free rocks to line the flower beds from papa and granny's property so I will go get them when I go back up to see granny Friday. I hope all goes well with her surgery....I think she's nervous. She'll be staying in a recovery center for 3 weeks after she gets out of the hospital. They are really good, they even told her she could bring her chihuahua to the recovery center!

Got a bunch (5 rubbermaid tubs) of my old books from mama's house this past weekend and my kids were fighting over them. I guess that's a good thing, huh?

Chad sold the twin bed for $200 this weekend to a lovely couple that is adopting a 14 yr old girl and their daughter has the same first and middle name as our DD!

We are planning on putting the $200 toward a pie safe to use as a bookcase. I'm also thinking of building a bookshelf out of some of the barn boards from great-granddaddy's tobacco barns....still planning that one.

Oh, and Chad got me another hose so that I don't have to haul buckets into the chicken run anymore! It has an on/off nozzle so I don't waste water either! I put our pop up awning (the free one hubby got) on the back porch so we could have a little shade and it really looks kinda cute! The dogs are back there now taking a nap!