I Hate Burr Comb

Now that the hay is all put up, the chickens are more or less settling in to a routine (although they still are not giving many eggs for their numbers and cannot seem to agree on a roosting order yet) and the grass has almost stopped growing. I am beginning to actually catch up on some things I put off for far too long. I even got what I hope is the last pasture brush hogging finished yesterday too.

The yard no longer looks like my tool shed and tractor implements exploded all over it. The first two loads of firewood are in and stacked, even the trailers are empty for a change and parked where they are suppose to be. I was even able to add some much needed expansion supers on to the new hives that I ignored for far too long.

Back in July these newest two hives had not even built out comb in their one brood box more than the four inside middle frames. Today when I opened them up they were both completely built out and full tot he brim and the bees had started building burr comb all over the top of the frames. It was so full of honey that the stuff started dripping everywhere when I pulled the top off.

Luckily I got there just in time because the hives were not yet honey bound but the queen had no open cells to lay eggs in either. I added a medium super to each hive that included three frames of already drawn comb. This should give them plenty of near term expansion and also something to work on until Winter hits.

It was a good thing I managed to get to them today though.

The Goldenrod flow is just starting to slow up a bit now. Some of the early blooming plants are turning dry and brown so next week I will get the last honey pull out of the way and then start rearranging the hives for Winter. I try and make sure as many of the medium frames as possible are back on the hives after the Fall harvest so the bees can get the remaining honey out of them and give them a little comb for whatever else they can store before it gets cold.

The Asters and some small Sunflower varieties will continue to bloom well into October and beyond and believe it or not as dry as we have been over the last few weeks the Dutch clover is still blooming here and there as well.

These cool nights have really made the flock of sheep happy too and they are prancing around once again instead of looking all hot and bothered. I even caught one of the yearling ewes teasing the new ram through the fence this morning.

She didn't seem to understand when I told her she had at least another year before she needed to worry about such things.

The Small - Hold is rapidly reaching the point where the general daily chores and maintenance is taking up almost as much time as projects do though. I hadn't really planned on this like I should have. It means now when I estimate completion times I have to extend them out because there is less overall time per day to work on them.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!!!