Bring out yer dead

We have not had the bees for very long and already there is a mound of corpses outside one of the hives.  I'muh call this hive Beenghazi.  It is a wonder that bees have survived at all when you consider ye antiente methodes of honey harvesting.  We are truly fortunate today to stand on the shoulders of so many giants.

Honey in the jar-o

We now have two packages of bees installed in hives, but who can say how things will turn out?  This project has been pretty expensive so far and it is not even complete.  We only have one suit and set of tools and I am not sure when I will pick up extras as there are a lot of other urgent projects.

I need to totally enclose the area where the bees are because that is supposed tol be the new and improved garden.  I am thinking about using the 55 gallon barrels for a windbreak.  Oh, that white plastic you see in the background near the green post is used for sjambok practice.  It seems better to hook a target up so it moves when it is hit rather than just repeatedly hitting a stationary target.

It looks like a vulture is circling above one of the trees.  Lostminds said he noticed that every time he opened the duck coop we are using for a McMutant coop vultures show up...  I never noticed anything like that last year.  We ordered 54 McMutants and lost 2 so far.  Not sure when I will order the next batch.

This year's turkeys are not very friendly, and I suspect it has to do with the fact they were placed in the same brood box as ducks.  I have noticed that critters react differently based on which critters they are raised with.

I kinda-sorta started this, but I have no idea when I will post anything of substance.

Happy New Year!

"Well," said Ish, "that was the Year One!"
"Yes," said Em, "but I think I shall always remember it as the Year of the Baby.  Names are easier to remember than numbers."
Thus from the very beginning it came about that they called each year not so often by its number as by a name based on something that had happened during that time.

Georg R. Stewart, Earth Abides (New York: A Fawcett Crest Book 1989), 127.

Last year was the year of: quackophany, lightning, canning, and, of course, filth.  We had a ridiculous number of ducks, lightning struck the well pump multiple times (~300' deep, so the rig was required...), completely used up all canning jars even the new ones.  Here is hoping your year is full of awesome.

I am still thinking about starting a site with more complete posts about various subjects such as raising turkeys, brood boxes and some book reviews.  I already know I do not have the time to make it a regular blog, posts would probably be monthly rather than daily.

AFK like JFK

Hopefully not that long, but it seems like it will be a while, probably the rest of the year.  Still have four turkeys to butcher, plus an unknown number of ducks, mostly Pekins.  Sadly, my smoker is messed up, so no more jerky unless I use the ghetto plant pot method.  Hopefully there will be time to build an extension to the main chicken coop which will serve as a brood building/McMutant hovel/greenhouse.