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News from the farm for July 17, 2009
Posted 7/17/2009 11:49pm by Heather Redden.
Greetings Everyone!
So, we have been ever so busy and I feel like I've been chasing my own tail for weeks now. Farming definitely has its ups and downs and I'm sure some of this will seem funny to us later but for now.....this newsletter might be titled, "How not to Farm for a Living" or perhaps, "If Only the Animals Didn't Think for Themselves."
Ah, where to begin? How about those busy little honey bees. An average sized honey bee hive this time of year contains a population of between 40,000-60,000 bees. So many little minds totally focused on bringing in as much food as they can from wherever they can find it. So two Mondays ago, I had a couple of hours time that I could harvest honey. I harvested 2 supers of honey. A super is the name for the wooden boxes that make up the hives. The frames that the bees build the wax comb in to store the honey hang in the supers. I didn't have time to extract and bottle the honey until Friday. I stacked the 2 supers in our garden cart, pulled it up by the house, and made sure that the top was secure so that the bees couldn't get inside. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that the bottom of the cart was not perfectly level. The bees found a little dip in the cart that allowed them to get inside the supers. Being the busy little bees that they are, by the time I went out Friday morning to get the honey for extraction, they had carried all 50 pounds back to their hives! So this evening I went back out to the bee yard and started to harvest again. I will have cut comb honey at the market tomorrow. This is honey still in the wax comb which means that this is honey in its most natural state. Next week I will also have bottled honey.
OK, so now let's talk turkey. Don't ever think that just because chickens and turkeys are both birds that there is any similarity in how you care for them. Brandon and I are really really good at raising chickens. W rarely ever lose a chick and we've raised hundreds. This spring we decided to raise 15 Bourbon Red turkeys. We knew turkeys were delicate after decades of confinement and a lack of breeding for survival skills but it's one thing to read about these things and another to experience it first hand. We are down to 4 turkeys out of 15. There are two toms and two hens. Our goal at this point is to try to get the survivors to adulthood so that they can raise their own offspring next year and hopefully we will build up a flock of tougher more natural turkeys. Please keep your fingers crossed!
On the wildlife side of things, our little ruby-throated hummingbird mother returned for the third year and built another nest in the oak tree in front of our house. She has already raised two babies this summer. The nest is so amazing. It is the size of a walnut and is made out of spider silk and covered with lichens to camouflage it. It is lined with dandelion and thistle down. It is like something you would imagine a fairy would build, not a bird. In the category of strange happenings, while we have lost all these turkeys we have also gained three ducklings. These very young ducklings appeared in our front yard June 28 with no sign of a mother. Thank goodness my family was visiting because ducklings are really fast! It took all of us to corral them. They are growing like weeds and have been a lot of fun to learn about.
I hope you are enjoying your summer and hope to see you tomorrow at the market.
Sincerely,
Heather and Brandon Redden
www.naturesharborfarm.com
So, we have been ever so busy and I feel like I've been chasing my own tail for weeks now. Farming definitely has its ups and downs and I'm sure some of this will seem funny to us later but for now.....this newsletter might be titled, "How not to Farm for a Living" or perhaps, "If Only the Animals Didn't Think for Themselves."
Ah, where to begin? How about those busy little honey bees. An average sized honey bee hive this time of year contains a population of between 40,000-60,000 bees. So many little minds totally focused on bringing in as much food as they can from wherever they can find it. So two Mondays ago, I had a couple of hours time that I could harvest honey. I harvested 2 supers of honey. A super is the name for the wooden boxes that make up the hives. The frames that the bees build the wax comb in to store the honey hang in the supers. I didn't have time to extract and bottle the honey until Friday. I stacked the 2 supers in our garden cart, pulled it up by the house, and made sure that the top was secure so that the bees couldn't get inside. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that the bottom of the cart was not perfectly level. The bees found a little dip in the cart that allowed them to get inside the supers. Being the busy little bees that they are, by the time I went out Friday morning to get the honey for extraction, they had carried all 50 pounds back to their hives! So this evening I went back out to the bee yard and started to harvest again. I will have cut comb honey at the market tomorrow. This is honey still in the wax comb which means that this is honey in its most natural state. Next week I will also have bottled honey.
OK, so now let's talk turkey. Don't ever think that just because chickens and turkeys are both birds that there is any similarity in how you care for them. Brandon and I are really really good at raising chickens. W rarely ever lose a chick and we've raised hundreds. This spring we decided to raise 15 Bourbon Red turkeys. We knew turkeys were delicate after decades of confinement and a lack of breeding for survival skills but it's one thing to read about these things and another to experience it first hand. We are down to 4 turkeys out of 15. There are two toms and two hens. Our goal at this point is to try to get the survivors to adulthood so that they can raise their own offspring next year and hopefully we will build up a flock of tougher more natural turkeys. Please keep your fingers crossed!
On the wildlife side of things, our little ruby-throated hummingbird mother returned for the third year and built another nest in the oak tree in front of our house. She has already raised two babies this summer. The nest is so amazing. It is the size of a walnut and is made out of spider silk and covered with lichens to camouflage it. It is lined with dandelion and thistle down. It is like something you would imagine a fairy would build, not a bird. In the category of strange happenings, while we have lost all these turkeys we have also gained three ducklings. These very young ducklings appeared in our front yard June 28 with no sign of a mother. Thank goodness my family was visiting because ducklings are really fast! It took all of us to corral them. They are growing like weeds and have been a lot of fun to learn about.
I hope you are enjoying your summer and hope to see you tomorrow at the market.
Sincerely,
Heather and Brandon Redden
www.naturesharborfarm.com
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