This weekend I wrapped up most of the garden fence project. The only thing I still need to do is run tensioning wire across the very top of the long sides of the garden. I will also run a wire along the bottom, about six inches off the surface of the ground in case small animals lean up on the fence or try to push through it. This was a lot of hard work, but now I can be assured that no deer, rabbits or other critters will be able to eat my garden! It's been a real struggle over the years.
With Spring right around the corner, I am starting to mass produce birdhouses in my woodshop. I like this particular model, in that the side swings out for easy cleaning. Will be putting up several of these on the property once they are painted and ready to go!
It's that time of the year to start incubating eggs! Thanks to my neighbor and friend, Sally, I've got 24 eggs incubating now. Today, they are 1/3 of the way and are ready to be candled! Candling eggs is a means of determining which eggs are developing and which are not by holding the egg in front of a bright light source so you can see what's inside! This Mann Lake PP371 32-Egg incubator has built-in candling lights, so it's basically as easy as turning on the light! Additionally, this little incubator allows you to add water without lifting the lid.
Wow, the weather today was amazing! I noticed hundreds of bees out in front of the hives today and in my flowerbeds so I decided to pull the hive apart while they were out doing their bee duties. What I found made me happy, and proud. In the bottom super, the cells are empty but still surrounded by some honey on the outer edges. There were also partially filled pollen cells. I didn't see any eggs but I didn't look that hard - it's still early and I know the hive is healthy so I wasn't too concerned. The top super still had a lot of honey in it.
It was a beautiful sunny, shirt-sleeve kind of day in the Pacific Northwest today and the beehive was very active! Lately, I've seen a few bees flying about on warm or sunny days but it looks like a lot of them came out to play today! This just gives me Spring fever! I've moved another stand close to the existing stand to add more hives. I've yet to level it and put it into its final position but I'll get to that in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, I'm looking at getting my swarm traps baited and getting my hives and frames out of winter storage!
For the past three years, I've had an electric fence around this particular garden but I've had to remove it. For some reason, the wires rusted and, as a result, conducted less charge. A deer got trapped inside and basically trashed my raised beds as it struggled to get out.
Happy New Year to all, first time I've grown hellebore plants for winter flowers, and I look forward to seeing the first blooms in 2021!
With all the craziness in the world now, here's a little beauty to help bring you peace and happiness today. These late-season flowers are sure keeping my honeybees happy. They particularly like the Black-Eyed Susans!
On this, the hottest day of the year thus far in the Pacific Northwest, with temperatures hovering near 100 degrees, it's just turned out to be too much for one of my bee hives. They are all hanging out on the front of the hive, in a behavior known as "bearding." It looks intimidating, but I can walk right up to the hive in a pair of shorts to take a picture. Once the temperature goes down, they will all go back inside like good little bees.