Spring's Frenzy

It seems like only yesterday that I kept telling myself "I have a few more weeks before it really kicks in"...HA! Out of time, and now running behind. I am now frantic with the sheer number of projects I must complete in an unbelievably non-existent amount of time. In only a matter of days the grape hyacinths have burst out of the ground, risen and opened. I only blinked...

And so did the darn daffodils, one minute they were just slips of green, and today, they are open and bowing to the sun and wind.

And so, on today's farm visit, there was much to do. I had to run up and feed the bees. And because the second hive (the one I thought I had lost) was eating so very much less sugar water, I opened the hive. Level two, the second full hive was full of honey. But level one was ground zero for the destruction I had imagined. The cold had killed off most of the hive. There were some large cockroaches living inside, and hundreds of thousands of dead bees. I got to work removing all the frames and seeing what kind of condition they were in. Three frames appeared to have live bees, but I saw no queen or any real activity, so I guess I will order a new nuc for this hive.

Fran (my husband and farm partner), came over to the farm today as we started to address the chickens, and the chickens "free range". They have pretty much been allowed access to whatever they like, and that now includes the neighbors flower beds under their coating of mulch - an icing on a cake a chicken can not resist! So they have been digging in the flower beds, and we now need to limit their range to lessen their destruction. We are installing new fencing to limit their travels, while still allowing them farm access.

After that, I returned home, processed some eggs for the week, and enjoyed the 60+ degree weather on the back deck. I had some potting to do, houseplants and some herbs, and my assistant Clarence the Cat, was there to put his seal of approval on the potting projects.