Sunday, May 25, 2014

Update and Happy Memorial Day





The Bachelorette and Invalid Mowing Crew are back in the barn for the night. They did a pretty good job and it is definitely showing signs of grazing so far. The grass and stuff is a bit longer than they normally like it but it won't take em long to get it all eaten down.

The only thing that bothered me was they were really looking over heated a few times. Perhaps because the wind wasn't blowing for a change or something. The heat around here is one reason we get the sheep sheared in early March so they will have enough wool growth back to protect them from the heat come June, July and August. The seven of them went through about 15 gallons of water today as well which I have logged into my numbers book for future carrying capacity posts.

The above picture is the best one I could get of my favorite ewe Seven. She is the black one in the back. This was after we put them to bed for the night but she was kinda hoping I was going to let em all back out I think. Once I am sure they are totally at peace out there I might in fact let em overnight it when I know it isn't going to rain. They are all large enough nothing should bother them. I don't think I would leave the lambs out there if I had any though.

Speaking of which a neighbor who lives down the road a bit told us the other day he had two Bald Eagles kill and eat two of his lambs last week. He said they didn't carry the lambs too far as they weighed in at about 40 pounds each already. It's been a few years since I have seen a Baldy around here but I been scanning the skies now wondering.

I went back and checked the queen cups I placed into Saybrook Colony yesterday and the bees in there has already attached them to the frame under them and appeared to be taking good care of em. I would say the first queen to emerge and go kill her sisters will be the new reigning monarch of that hive. It shouldn't be too long either. It takes 21 days for a queen to emerge and they close the cell after four days so somewhere between 1 and 15 more days.

The new nuc appears to be doing well too with a lot more bees inside than I thought I had at first.

Tomorrow I will check the traps South of me applying some new lure and making sure the ants haven't moved in to them. I also have the hive I moved to the neighbor's orchard to check on. They might be ready for a second brood chamber by now.

I also added another honey super to two of my hives as the ones they had appeared to be filled with honey although not much of it is capped yet so it isn't ready to harvest. Another two or three weeks I would guess.

We might have missed the Honey Locust bloom this year due to the rain and cooler temps. The blooms look dried out already when I went and checked today. Also we may have missed some of the Walnut varieties as well. The Walnut I have near the house still has long tangling clumps of green buds but they are looking dry as well and a Walnut up the road appears to have already bloomed so not sure what is going on there.

At least the Dutch Clover is popping out all over now and I saw several bees working the little white blooms today.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!


8 comments:

  1. Sounds like a really good weekend so far.

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    1. Wasn't too bad Rob. Up until today when it started really raining and we needed it enough I was happy about it :)

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  2. Even with my dogs, if I had sheep or goats I'd have to pen them up in a shed at night. Too many predators here. Beyond the arc of the lights at night, anything could come visiting.

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    1. Harry - Well once they get a bit over half grown there ain't much here going to mess with em. At least not when they are in a group together. The coyotes aren't really big enough to do much to the grown ones, nor are dogs. I have seen the bigger ewes send a Labrador sized dog flying. We are also pretty wide open nothing much large would venture this far out around here.

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  3. A Baldie took a smallish dog up here, not long ago. It was roughly poodle-sized, IIRC. Small pets get eaten all the time; plenty of predators & too few caring pet-owners.

    Your caution is well-advised.

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    1. RP - A woman down the road had her Yorkie taken away by an owl not all that long ago. I have seen kittens carried off before when they weren't paying attention too. I am most worried about a pack of wild dogs more than anything else. They will come out in the open and don't fear people as much.

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  4. PP,

    Have you considered a misting system to help cool the lambs down during the summer?

    Hopefully, the birds won't target any of your lambs.

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    1. Sandy - Actually getting the sheep wet makes them hotter believe it or not. It mats down the wool and their wool acts like a big many tendril heat sink system. When they get wet it doesn't work nearly as well. One reason it is important sheep can get out of the rain during Summer. Also the Lanolin does repel water pretty well so it take a lot of water to get em soaked.

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