Ohiofarmgirl'sAdventuresinTheGoodLand-where ya been? whatcha been doin

[ohiofarmgirl]

WOW! Bibbird!!! great work!!!! very well done. (and that mean french lady can just stay in france-land!)




hey Tanks - no power = no pump = boo.
FF has all great ideas on the turkey. probably wont do any harm. but i'd call to see if you can get a refund and file this under "sometimes these things happen."

we had one duckling who had a closed eye - turns out some of his feathers were poking him right in his eye. we used a warm washcloth and brushed back the feathers. but if your little guy was densely packed in a box with others - he could have gotten poked and the eye may be lost. poultry is pretty resilient and he'll probably grow just fine.

VL - i think i probably could take a long term outage better! mostly i was the only one not prepared (mentally) so there was a lot of stompin' around and me muttering "this just ain't fittin...."

got some of my weeding done and now i'm gonna start working on this sticky mess

 

[TanksHill]

Ahhh electric well, did not think of that. I really do take my city water for granted.

Thanks for the turkey advice.

gina

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

its the buzz on our honey harvest! whooot! tons of pix so i'm gonna show 'em to you here:

http://adventuresinthegoodland.blogspot.com/2010/08/oh-honey.html

so now that the electric is back, the kitchen is cleaned out, and i've recovered from working outside for a little bit... i'm thinkin' that we need some honey yums... where was that link for the cupcakes? oh yes...here we go.....

oh but wait... sorry.. first our findings on the frames and such:

we have both a Styrofoam and a wood hive (one of each) we dont have a resolution yet on which is better - we'll have to report on this later once both hives have over wintered. the good news is that our Styrofoam hive did just fine.

the frames: we have both plastic and wood frames (with the wire supports). we liked the wood ones MUCH better - and so did our beez. the wood ones were more uniform and were easy to work with.

the plastic ones - not so much. the beez built these crazy structures that were not uniform and the whole shootin' match was one big heap. unlike the wood frames which easily slid right out and were separated, the plastic frames had to be removed from the super in one piece (which was a Feat of Strength for The Big Man). then we had to cut the frames+combs apart which we felt was messy and wasteful...and a pain in the patootie to boot.

it may have been that the plastic frames weren't waxed well enough, or were older.. or who knows. but it just didnt work out.

while it wasnt horrible, we did the wood ones first and were amazed at how fast the process went. and then the plastic ones (especially since we were tired by then) just didnt go as well.

but the good news, about all this, is that we really have our confidence up about the whole beekeeping thing. our plan is to get 2 more hives next year for a total of 4. and we are keeping our ear to the ground for any swarms (we've alerted the local town gossip to be on the lookout).

and thats the buzzzzzzz.......and now.. back to baking

 

[Dace]

Very cool honey pix, honey!

Yummmmmmmm!

 

[newmochick]

That was the one thing I hated when I lived on well water - no power, no water. Started filling up the washing machine and bath tubs just to have it especially when big storms were forecasted.

Glad it was only a short time, having been there and done that!

Are your bees the native bees or honey bees you bought? (I haven't read all your postings)

 

[kcsunshine]

That honey looks so yummy.

 

[valmom]

That looks like great honey! I love chewing the wax with the honey mixed in it- home made chewing gum. Where did you get your extractor? The only ones I've seen are electric and cost a lot. If we ever get bees I want a hand cranked one!

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

hey honeys!

newmochick - we purchased one hive locally last year.. and the 2nd was native.. they swarmed off the hive that has been at the old farm since his grandfather started keeping them at least 40 yrs ago.

dang.. never thought about the washer... hum...great idea.

the extractor was from Blue Sky Bee Supply here in ohio - they had a sale and it was only $119!!!! it was plastic but we didnt think we needed the stainless one. compared to others we thought it was a deal.

the bottling pail was $24

easy peasy and great service.


the honey is very light and delicious. we were kind of wondering b/c i let a lot of buckwheat go to bloom/seed. we wondered if it would darken it.. but nope. very fresh and delish!

i never got to baking today...but maybe tomorrow

 

[freemotion]

Ooooo....you are making me reconsider beekeeping again! I do worry about the lack of flowering plants around here....gotta do more research on that.

Maybe I should start with maple syrup. Still haven't done that. And maple trees don't bite ya!

 

[lalaland]

I'm putting in a sand point well just to have water in case of a power outage - I have most of the pump parts and my neighbor is going to witch the land to find the water, and do the heavy labor part, too.

definitely going to follow your lead OFG and try some bees next spring.

and bibliobird, that was fantastic, and thank you so much for posting the link. made my day.

OFG, thanks for taking the time to post all the wonderful pics of honey.