Chickens!

After chatting with a 'bee' friend, who also has chickens, I thought I would investigate further.  I researched on the net for a week, and actually opened the 'chicken' books I have been collecting for when we moved to another location, I visited my friend's chickens and my daughter and I were hooked.  Lately, I have been taking the 'life's too short' mentality literally and rather than delaying what I want to do until a different house or time, I have been taking the opportunities as they happen, which, to cut a long story short, involves chickens.

My garden is quite tiny so it was never big enough for the trampoline or a for kicking a football around,so I never really thought it was suitable for chickens but after chatting to my friend, I was convinced.  

This is Susie the Light Sussex. 

The Chicken in the middle, we think is a Black Barred Rock and her name is Buffy because I thought it was a different breed.  

Buffy at home, with her food and drink.  

The 3rd chuck is a Rhode Island Red, Rhoda, she is a bit camera shy!  

The first day was Saturday when they made themselves at home.  Sunday am, we got 2 eggs, which chickens, we don't know. Today, we only got one egg, but the hens are only 20 weeks old so we shouldn't expect too much.  They are really interesting to watch, and are a lot softer than we imagined.  

They are still settling in, and we are getting into a routine with them.  The one thing we really must remember is to ensure they are locked in at night, we have a lot of foxes around here.  Kids are being real stars in the clean up area, and we already have a demand for the chicken poop. 

The chickens will eat any bees that have died outside the hive, and I was reading in one of the chicken books that sometimes mice and rats can try and eat the chickens food and the best solution to this is a cat!    Think this is a step too far.....there has to be a limit..... 

Snake Cam Pics

Just a few pics taken with the snake cam. The video is good, but I haven't had time to edit it. 

Bees all look healthy enough, I love to see the new white comb, its amazing how they make it. 

Solar bee drinking fountain. 

Laptop recording snake cam pics. 

Lots of bees now.  We have just had a week of rain and the first day of sunshine, they were ever so busy. The general buzz from the hive was "Don't get in our way, we have lots of catching up to do."   

Snake Cam & Sustainability Fete

New gadget time again, below was an image I captured using a usb snake cam pushed through the entrance hole in the hive.  I will have more of 'play' tomorrow, but by the time a got it out the box on Friday, it was time for bee bed time and the hive was pretty full and they were not appreciating the spotlight I was giving them.  I will have another go tomorrow midday and hopefully see more comb, less bees, and I will call that an inspection!  

Tweens and I had a busy day today at a Sustainability Fete, Our association had a stand and one of our association members had his observation hive on display and it was drawing a lot of attention.  

I remember my first experience with Honey Bees was at a similar occasion. I saw an observation hive and was totally fascinated, How do they make honey in there? How can there be only one Queen? Why don't they all just fly away?  It took me a couple of years to build up the courage to do something about it, but I am glad I did.  I can't describe the calmness and the general peace with the world that I get when I spend time watching the bees. But enough of that. 

I was really interesting to talk to others today and introduce some of them to the bees world, people who were interested varied from the prospective bee keeper, children who had never seen bees before, to a teenager who was more interested in the mass chaos that would ensue should he undo the catch!  I confess, I mostly listened, there were far more experienced bee keepers present who were far better informed. 

Within the observation hive today we watched new bees hatching, mortuary bees trying desperately to find a hole to throw out dead bees and a larvae that was not going to make the grade. Hopefully, by now, they are tucked back up in their national hive with an open entrance to take out the trash!

A small side line to the information session, our local bee keeper was able to supply his local honey to the local population.  Just how it should be, I bought a couple of jars myself and I am looking forward to a spoonful on my yoghurt tonight. 

Excessive Drones

Lovely summer day today and the bees were making up for the lost days through storms. They were very busy, lots of pollen coming in.  But....

 There were a lot of drones coming and going, I even saw one drone being evicted.  I know they do this towards the end of summer, but I thought it might be a bit early to be planning for winter.

Drones may just be on 'cleansing' flights and be doing it, apparently, more frequently due to the poor weather recently, or they may be warming up for a mating flight...which is worrying.  I had a keek through windows and entrances and couldn't see any Queen cells, so I am assuming Queen Kylie is still strong, but the frequency of the drones is a bit worrying. I did tell my boys, who are currently on summer holiday, that if they did swarm, it was their job to chase the swarm down and bring it back.  Not sure they took me seriously...but I really was!

Cheeky blighter, this bumble did go in and and it was not welcomed.  I didn't see it leave, but looking through the window, I did see a few of my girls taking it on.

Drone being kicked out, it was probably a useless free-loading teenage drone.....Oops, humanising bees.

 Another drone.  They are much larger and blacker than the girls. The girls are a lot smaller than the bees  I started with.  I was reading that the smaller bees have a better defence against Varroa and that is the way that the bees combat Varroa, the trouble with foundation is that the size of the cells are standard and takes the choice away from the bees, if they are left to their own defences, perhaps they could be more proactive in 'self' defence. Please don't consider this as solid advice, I am only choosing to relay information that suits my natural (also very inexperienced) cause!  I am currently worried about my bees running away from home, or that my queen has run out of sperm and I am housing a box of useless non productive men bees.

Thanks for reading, and please, if you have any advice, I really will be interested in hearing it, I do understand that every bee-keeper has their own experiences and advice, so I am more than willing to listen to all, and make a judgement call,  

Bee Close Up - Not for the weak hearted!

Pics below are taken of a dead bee found outside the hive.  Parts are easily recognisable, so I will let you work it out for yourselves.  Is this getting too creepy!  

More microscope pics

Bandits hair, at  x350, no wonder my hoover gets clogged up!

Cant remember what this is, but its pretty. 

Fuchsia stamen.  

Hobgoblin!  Guess what I am doing. 

More hobgoblin, must be calorie free with all that air. 

Lavender flower seed

And lavender, magnified some more. 

Rose seed

 Rose seed. 

rose seed. 

And all three rose seed together.