Too Much to Do, So Little Time to Talk

Went out to the bees today. Alas, they haven't put any honey into the brood chambers.

If you look at the dry countryside surrounding them, you can see they aren't going to. They are still finding a little pollen but they must be working hard at it to find anything. I must of made a mistake in putting honey supers on and not making them work the brood chambers out first. I'm going to have to unstack the whole pile and pull the brood chamber out and re-stack. Normally for winter we leave the two brood chambers and two honey supers. That means early next spring I'll have to put on the brood chambers before the same mistake is made again. The queens didn't lay a single egg in these new brood supers.

I'll have to restack the boxes anyway as the bottom entrance is turned to wide open to allow lots of room for breezes. Flip the bottom panel and the opening is smaller for winter. The bees will narrow it further as cold weather arrives. This will be prime time to get stung as I thoroughly stir up the bees and they conclude that someone is out to rob their hive of honey. I just wish it were so but I put the hive out in the field too late. It's been and run to catch up year. Something I've just never managed.

This being the first year the bees will be in this field over the winter, I need to move the apiary fence to the other side of the haystack. Don't know why the previous bee keeper put it here on the side where the winter winds will hit the hives full force. The other side where row after row of hay will block the bulk of the winter winds seems much more appropriate. I do need to check out where the snow drifts land most often to make sure the hives won't get burried. I'd have worked on the project toady but my daughter had a hair appointment with me. She wanted blonde highlights added. Beware of adding talents, they make your to do list very, very long. I've got to get the youngest's bangs trimmed tonight. The other girls I did a few days ago but the youngest was asleep at the time.

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Wow!! are we please with our Chicory. Yes, we're switching gears here and talking about goats.

Chicory is only two years old but look how much milk I received this morning, three quarts. I'm getting 1 1/3 to 1 1/2 gallons of milk a day. Doesn't look like I'm going to miss my Saanens after all.
I made mint ice cream with the cream from a few days ago when I separated and tomorrow I've got to get another batch of cream buscuit dough made to freeze.The little goats are growing well and with their mom's performance, I've high hopes for them. I'd like to show you just how well they are growing but I've not the time to stand around waiting for them to hold still. They do but it's only when their head is down eating or maybe when I'm not around. So this poor photo is to illustrate that yes, they still have their milk goiters.

And talking about goats. These Pronghorn are nicknamed goats and right now they are collecting does for their herems. This big buck has a especially large group of does. I don't envy him. More just means he has to run more. The young does in particular are keeping him busy as they keep trying to sneak off.