Not so still in the night.

The bees have officially found a spot on the land. The mighty stand assembled last Sunday has been put to good use. Last night Lane & Drew, after dark (in hopes of keeping all the field bees who would be snug in bed for the night), toted all seven of their combined hives to their new & hopefully permanent & comfortable home. Apparently, however, they were not docile. In fact, they were quite riled up & stung Drew & Lane numerous times through their bee suits! So, if you were wondering when bees sleep--they don't. Apparently they stay buzz-y into the wee hours! ;)

Since Drew didn't get to see them in the dark & because the first part of our 'drive way' was installed this morning & because we needed milk from a conveniently located dairy, we took a drive out. We forgot the camera so all we have to document are these not so great shots from what appears to be the worst cell-phone camera ever. Major thumbs down on that one Droid...

But, both the driveway & the bees really help pull things together, like a physical signature on the property--we're there to stay!

We keep discovering great things, plant life, etc. One of which is a plethora of blackberries. One variety is ripening right now & we've enjoyed munching on them when we take a second to find them. This weekend should prove a fruitful harvest, should you want a bowl for yourselves. (earlier=better as the heat is imminent for the weekend).

You could Stand on It

This weekend on the farm...

So we are going to be weekend farmers for a little bit. Like i have said on previous posts it turns out there is a lot to a farm, a lot of things that need to be built, dug, cut down, drilled, spread out, and stood up. Once we get a few of those done we will be able to live out there a little more of the week and hopefully one day, everyday.

Enough of that. we built a be hive stand this weekend that as my good buddy put it you could park a fire truck on ( and he is a fireman so he should know). It should hold roughly fourteen hives which will be a good start, we are hoping to go into next spring with about that many if not a few more. So we can seriously start getting some of that golden goodness. We used some store bought lumber, concrete and cedar posts. We spent a few hours last week harvesting cedar trees from the woods and we used two of them to make our four, four foot posts to hold the stands with.

While we did that the girls picked black berries from the field and helped sabba and sophta start the peach orchard. They also planted some raspberry bushes. so in a few years we should hopefully be getting something from them. The one thing that we have read from all homesteaders who are looking into hind's sight is that you should start all the perennials as soon as possible. Which i will tell you after reading that and before having land i though ok that is what i will do. But when you get out there and your to do list is pages long and all you want to do is get some of the things done so you can do the things you really want to do, you realize you may never get to planting those perennials. with that being said, if anyone wants to come and plant perennials you let us know, you are always more than welcome.

so here comes the events in pictures:

cedar post, chain saw milled

gotta have a straight and level line

by the end of the day, twenty four feet of hive stands

Leviah approves with an icy thumbs up!

Looking for blackberries

Garden fence coming along

the orchard

Driveway/parking area coming soon, the pipes are here

It is Here...

Well in case you don't read Lacey's blog we have become the stewards of twenty three and half acres in Liberty, NC. Which for us has become a dream come true. The hardest part of farming is acquiring the land, once that is accomplished the rest is just all work. The property is basically a long rectangle, that is about four hundred feet wide and about a half mile long. In the front is a five acre field  and then back from that is an older forest. It seems that at some point it was probably selectively logged but there are some real old big trees still remaining. We hung a swing in one of them, so the girls could have something fun to do out there.

Already the farm life is becoming an eye opening experience. We don't have a place to live out there yet, we don't have water, and we don't have electricity. Which causes some limitations but overall has been a real neat experience. So we drive from our house which is only about thirty minutes away and just spend hours out there when we can. When you are out there it really helps you to appreciate what it must have been like to have just come upon a piece of land and started a life. All the little things that we take for granted in city life. So to put it plainly we are starting from scratch, which is extremely exciting.

We have learned that just like when we bought our house and gutted it, that we need a room or place of sanctuary. So we have put all grandiose plans aside and are focusing on a shelter something small like a picnic shelter that will allow us to get out of the elements and relax. On one of the sides of the shelter i want to build one of these. Its an all in one smoker, grill, and oven.

Also in the works we are learning about driveways, we want to put something simple in so that when you pull off the road you don't have to drive through the ditch. When i went into the research of this project i planned on just laying a pipe down and then dropping some gravel down on top of it and that would be done. Have you heard of number 3 gravel? how about number 57? crush and run? base rock? drive rock? these are all various rocks that have to be put down in a certain order and depth to get a proper drive. The good news is after about three days of rock research, i was told i should try talking to the DOT and they apparently will add a drive for you for free. In fact as we speak that DOT engineer is looking at our drive to get the appropriate work order.


Lastly we are working on a garden area, the soil there is real sandy which is strange because as long as i have been in NC all i have seen is the good old Carolina clay. So i am going to send off a soil test and learn a little bit about what this kind of dirt needs.


The neighbors say that there is a real issue with deer there so we are going to construct a woven fence around the garden that will hopefully keep them out. Below is some pictures of the start of that. We are using all the sticks/trees that we cut down in the front of the woods to thin them out.

                               

                                
We will keep you updated as more happens and as we get some of these projects closer to completion.

Nobody Got Stung

When you get new bees there are mainly two new ways to get them. One is called a "nuc" which is short for nucleolus, the other is a package, which is about 3lbs of bees and a queen. I have always gone for the nucs because they seem easier to install and bees are more established. But in an effort to mix things up we went in a package this time. We got them from a local apiary called Busy Bee Apiaries in the chapel hill area. You know that place on 40 where you can see all the hives from the highway? thats the place.

Naomi carrying the queens, one queen for each package of bees. They come in their own little protective case with some "nurse" bees, so that when you introduce them to the hive the bees wont kill them. See the side with the white stuff? that is the candy side, when we put them in the hive we will poke a little hole in that side, so the bees can smell the new queen while they eat the candy. by the time they get to the queen they will be used to her, hopefully.

Leviah giving the queen a whatfor

Six pounds of bees getting ready to go in the back of the subaru. its times like this that you hope you do get rear ended.

Getting the two new hive boxes ready. They will each get a new empty hive to start their happy home in.

once you are ready, you take the lid off and then shake the bees. well before you shake them if you spray them with sugar water, they are so busy eating the sugar water off each other that they don't mind the shaking.

Naomi giving a few of the bees a scooch so they don't get smooshed. Then you put the feeder on which is filled with sugar water to help them get started and you are all done.

Here is a video of naomi putting in the rest of the sugar water and getting the lid on.

the chicken tractor

After a few weeks of working out all the unexpected I have officially finished the chicken tractor. Lacey and Naomi still have to paint it but all the functional stuff is done.

The last coop I built on a wheelbarrow stand thinking that if you can move 80 pounds of concrete around why not a few chickens and some eggs. What I didn't think about was the run. Every time I wanted to move the coop I had to remove the run, then move the chickens and then connect the run back. This While process took about 30 mins, which is just way to long plus the chickens would get out and run the backyard until dark. The old coop also had a roost which was good enough for them before the got big and fat now only two of them can fit on it. The ventilation was also pretty poor which made for a super stinky coop.

So the things that I wanted for this coop was as follows; more room, a roost that fit them all, better ventilation, a better way for my egg collector to collect eggs and easy mobility.

My idea was to basically make a run for them about the same size as the old one and then put the coop part on top of it. to keep things simple I also moved away from the A frame design and just went with right angles which was a lot easier for me.

I have moved the chickens three times already, once a day pretty much since they have been in there and it is super easy now that I have the wheels on the back too.

Here are some pictures.

Side View

Wheels on the back

Ladder on a hinge so I can pull it up when i move the coop

Egg doors

Inside shot of nesting box

Ventilation and a little window to see the birds

I made a little stand for the bucket that feeds the chicken nipple