Once again I been neglecting the blog shamelessly. I have about 3 or 4 weeks to get around 3 months of work done before it starts getting too cold and still have to deal with the million little problems that crop up around here on a daily basis.
For instance we had the Whether who suddenly wasn't a whether trying to breed a ewe a mentioned the other day. This caused Frazier to go berserk and begin attacking the fence with such force I am surprised he didn't break through honestly. I then had to drop what I was doing to and deal with that emergency which was followed closely by water hose breaking it's end off that I also had to stop and deal with.
Today's unexpected issue was the battery went bad on the 850 tractor. I had it tested at one place and then tested it myself at work. Yep. Bad. Replaced it and the old girl is running perfectly once again. Of course all that took time I really don't have right now but I was able to get her back up and cut the front hay field.
The guy who finished cutting the back field for me said he was going to come by and cut the front but of course he never showed up and with the week forecast as being hot and dry I am out of time so I used the brush hog once again. The real issue with using the brush hog is it tends to knock a lot of the Johnson grass over rather than cutting it and in turn the uncut stuff gets picked up by the rake and then isn't dry enough when I go bale it due to the added grass. With a little luck if I let it stand an extra day after raking I might fix this problem and hopefully by next season I can find a good used disc mower or a sickle mower that works.
As usual the chickens really like it when I mow the big fields and two of them managed to photo-bomb me when I was out taking a picture of the freshly mowed field.
I then spent the rest of the afternoon continuing to tear down the old ram's paddock fence. Not much left there that is going to be salvageable. The panels that were used for his fence have been heavily bent and Frazier has an issue with grabbing the thicker wire panels with his mouth and pulling on them. Eventually he manages to break the welds and begin taking the panels apart. Still there are some section I can cut out of the badly bent panels for use in other places.
While pulling down the last panel I was right next to a swarm trap I never managed to take down. I figured it was full of wax worms like the others and thought I would get to it eventually once the more important stuff is caught up.
Well....
It's full of bees. I watched as a few dozen came and went laden with pollen (although what is pollinating right now I don't know) and nectar. I doubt it's a very big swarm and it has a pretty slim chance of making it through Winter but I will attempt and get it in a hive box this week. I got to move them before I can finish taking down the last panel as the panel is right up against the box and messing with it pisses em off as you can imagine.
So tomorrow needs to be a bee day. I need to do at least a small honey pull and bring in the other two dead out hives so I can clean them out this Fall. Looks like adding an after dark swarm trap move is also in order.
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!!
I captured two swarms in the pst month. The first swarm appeared to be queenless. They had drawn out four pieces of comb about the size of a cup saucer but there was no brood, honey, nectar or pollen, just empty wax. The other swarm appeared queenless as well, but they were adding nectar and capping a small amount of honey. After I transferred the first swarm, they were gone in three days. The second swarm has been in the hive for 10 days. One of the old Beeks in our club suggested pulling two full frames of brood from my other hives and put it in with the small swarm. I don't think I will do that, I'm more concerned with the survival of my strong hives than the small, late swarm.
ReplyDeleteYour place sounds like ours, never two days the same and whenever you start a job another pops its head up and shouts me next :-)
ReplyDeleteBusy time here too, but at least we only have thirteen acres to look after, which is enough for us!
ReplyDeleteIf it's not one thing, it's 2 things and a catastrophe!
ReplyDeleteFrazier likes to stir up trouble, doesn't he?
ReplyDeleteI've had battery issues the last few years. I remember growing up we used to use old batteries to run the electric fence. No chance of that anymore as when they die now they seem completely dead rather than going slowly. I've gotta think about getting a tup to put to my ewe's soon. All good fun!
ReplyDelete