Turtle Time

Every year around this time, we get turtles laying eggs in the garden or driveway or soft dirt in the yard.  We have two small lakes on our property, and so they come out of the water and lay their eggs, and then go away and leave them and never come back to them.  The poor turtle hatch-lings have to make it back to the water on their own before they get eaten by predators.  And we have lots of predators, that's for sure!  Large birds, raccoons, skunks, foxes, snakes, fishers, and even our cats can make life hard for the small turtles.
     I have never seen the baby turtles hatch.  One year I carefully marked the spot where a turtle laid her eggs, and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited.......never saw anything.  Quite often the turtles lay eggs in a seed bed in the garden.  One year a snapping turtle destroyed my carrot patch laying eggs there!   We have small painted turtles and large snapping turtles that lay eggs.   The large snapping turtles are not to be messed with!   When they feel threatened, they can bite hard and mangle human fingers, or break bones on small animals. 
     Here is a photo of a small painted turtle that laid eggs at the edge of the garden this evening.   At least she was a good girl and didn't destroy a seed bed or a row of vegetables!  She got a little nervous when I got close to take her picture, but I tried to reassure her that "she was just going to be a blog article".  Ha!  Wonder if she cared???

A painted(box) turtle laying eggs at the edge of the garden.

A few years ago my cat Tippy got curious with a large snapping turtle.   I worried that she would get hurt messing around with these kinds of turtles, which can be quite aggressive when threatened.   This one was almost as big as her.  But she wisely walked away and didn't pester the turtle.

Almost As Busy As My Bees!

The last two weeks have been so busy for us!  The weather finally warmed up and we went from a so-so spring to HOT summer!  Harold and I have been "as busy as bees" planting and tilling and doing yard work and mowing.   I spend 8 hours a day outside working on our 3 gardens and greenhouse.  It's a good thing we enjoy this!

Things are growing nicely in the high tunnel greenhouse:

Lettuces, peppers, garlic and spinach are all growing well.

Another view looking from the other side.  I even have some potato plants growing to the right hand as you walk into the doorway.

I always wear my straw hat and "garden apron" outside, as well as a long sleeve white shirt over everything.   Spending all those hours in the sun, I need plenty of protection.   The garden apron sure comes in handy to carry seed packets, gloves, markers, a water bottle and a few hard candies, plus small garden tools, measuring tape and a hanky.

I won't win any fashion awards, but I dress for comfort while working and for sun protection.  I am wearing my garden apron, too. 

Here's a close up of my garden apron.  It has 4 huge, deep pockets and just ties around.

Look at this beautiful stand of romaine lettuce in the greenhouse!  In a couple weeks they will be market size!

I discovered something the other day - about 60 years ago - yes, that's 60 years ago - my Dad made these cement mushrooms for a rock garden our family had.  Over the years and several moves later, I discovered I still had these!  They need a new paint job, but here they are:

These cement mushrooms sure bring back memories of what my Dad made for a rock garden we had.  I will paint them up again, but for now they are part of the "decor" in front of my greenhouse.

Here's a view of one garden so far.   Nothing is really growing yet, and I have old bee boxes around young tomato and pepper plants to protect them from the winds.   But it is all planted up now!

We use old bee boxes for protection around plants.  This garden is 50 x 150 feet.

In my other garden I use old large tin cans for protection around cabbages.  Some of these cans have been in use for 8 years now!

I planted 75 cabbages the other day.  This garden is 30 by 125.

We have crops planted on the other end of the pasture, too.  Most of the pasture is planted with clover, and it is up and growing.  The other part of the pasture has hops growing, and winter squash and pumpkins.  ALL of our hop plants made it through the winter!  Some plants even put on new rhizomes!  In order to water all this - it is about 1/8 mile away - we use a hose and a large water tank on the back of one of our old pickups.

Harold is filling up the water tank we use to keep the pasture garden watered.

Today the township also dug up our road to put in new culverts!  Nobody could get into or out of our place until things were finished.   Good thing nobody required an ambulance!

The whole road was completely dug up across to lay drainage culverts in.

A worker adjusts the culvert.  This is the same fellow who did the excavating when we built our house back in 2005.

So that's what has been happening here on Honey B Farm.  Besides all the planting and mowing, Harold has had to fix tractor tires and lawn mower tires and tires on his black truck.    Harold's tractor loader has been a blessing for moving soil around and tilling up the pasture to plant the clover.

Harold's "work horse" - better to get along with than his Belgian horses used to be!

Starting Our 11th Year of Beekeeping!

Yesterday we began our 11th year of keeping bees.  We went to Clearbrook MN to get 4 nucs of bees.  And today we went to Hackensack MN to get 2 packages of bees.  We will start the year with 6 hives.  A "nuc" is 5 frames of bees, brood and drawn comb, along with a queen.  A "package" of bees is 3 pounds of bees and a queen, with no frames.   Our bees from last year did not make it through the winter, as we believe we had a build up of carbon dioxide in the hive due to the hives being a little too tightly insulated for winter.    Anyway, here are photos of our beginnings this year. 

Starting with the nucs:

The nuc boxes are in front of the large hives.  Harold is preparing the larger hive boxes to make room for the frames in the nuc boxes.

Harold transfers a frame of bees into the large hive box.

A beekeeper must really get close to the bees!  You cannot have any fear of bees!

Just about done with the last nuc box.   We put 3 nucs into large boxes and one nuc into a smaller box.  We will put a package of bees into a large box and a package of bees into a small hive box.   This way we can tell which is better - package bees or nucs and also which hive box is better.

To keep all these bees more or less "calmed down", we use a smoker.  It is filled with burning pine needles and uses bellows to keep the smoke going.   The smoke doesn't harm the bees and helps to keep them less aggressive during hive duties.

Harold sets up one nuc into a smaller hive box.  In his left hand is a feeder tray, which we will fill with sugar water to feed the bees when natural plantings have not bloomed yet in this area. 

A smaller hive box all set up.  We will put a metal covered lid on a little later.   The bees are already orienting themselves to their new home!  They make small circles of "practice flights" around the hive, and into and out of the hive, so they know where home is.

A close up of a nuc box.

A selfie of yours truly - the photographer!!

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Today's photos of the package bees: 

The bees were in the warehouse of Mann Lake Bee Co in Hackensack MN.  Many beekeepers were lined up to receive their bee packages.

Apparently I wasn't the only one taking pictures today!

Many thousands of boxes of bees are ready for beekeepers!

Harold picks up our two boxes of bees.  They are neatly and safely contained in wooden boxes with screens for air for the bees.   The queen is in her own little box inside each box.

We put the bees in the back seat of the car for the 2 hour trip home.

Harold sprays the bees with a sugar water solution to calm the bees before they are transferred into the hive box.  We do not use a smoker on package bees.

Harold removes the can from the package.  It has slight holes in it, and has a sugar solution in it to feed bees during storage before beekeepers pick up their bees.

The package of bees is dumped into the new hive in one swift motion.

This is the small container with the queen.   Harold uses a pocket knife to undo the cork on the little box, and then he will set the queen into the hive, box and all, the box to be removed later.

The new bees are investigating their new home, as Harold makes a space for the feeder box.

The bees that don't get dumped into the box will go into it on their own, as they want to be near their queen.  We set the package box near the hive opening so they can fly in as they wish.  After a couple hours all the bees should be into the new hive, and settled into the new home - ready to work!

And so we start over again in a new bee season.   We used to work with an area beekeeper regarding bees, and had a lot more bees (many were on loan from him).   But he no longer is into bees due to family health issues, so we are on our own now.  Last year we got 350 lbs of honey from 4 hives.   This year with 6 hives we are hoping for a lot more honey!  The two package bees come from California, and the 4 nuc box bees come from Texas.   Pretty soon the yard will be buzzing again!
     It is fun and rewarding to work with the bees.  And the bees do such a good job pollinating things in the garden.   Beekeeping is definitely a win-win situation, even if it IS a lot of work!