Nest Watch 2

Sort of like looking for a four leaf clover...

Somewhere in there is a bird nest.  Do you see it?  I almost didn't either.  In fact, if the mother hadn't flown up as Kate and I walked towards it, I might have stepped on it :-o.

Now do you see it?

There were three eggs and one just hatched baby in the nest when I found it in the morning.  By the time I got back out there to mark the nest, there were three hatched and just one egg left.  Last night there were no eggs, but the babies were all piled on top of each other and I didn't want to disturb them so I'm assuming there are now four babies.  I'll check back in a few days.

The only ground nesting bird I was familiar with was a Kildeer.  It didn't seem like a likely spot for a Kildeer though.  I usually find them in a rocky spot and they yell at me while flying away.  This momma just quickly and quietly disappeared.

I came in and looked up nesting birds in Kentucky and didn't see anything that was a positive match. One nice site, The Birder's Report, offered to ID a nest, so I sent a picture and description of the location and quickly received a response back.  It's an Eastern Meadowlark!  One of my favorite birds to see around here.

I didn't realize they were ground nesters.  We leave as much "wild" area along our fence lines, creeks and ponds as we can Saint Tim will tolerate.  This nest is in the mowed area next to the "safe" area I'm guessing because the "wild" areas are too weedy.  I'm not sure what to do about that.  In the meantime, I've got this nest flagged and will be watching the ground for other nests.

Kate and Tilly never pass up a chance for a Unit ride, even if it involves boring sitting and watching me clean up fence lines.  The fence painters are coming.  We've been working our butts off trying to get ready.  That's the downside to letting things "go wild".  

Much of the perimeter fences are going to stay wild and covered up (you can see that in the background), but the interior field fences are being tidied up.  The fences around the big pond will just have the fronts cleaned up and painted.  I'll be glad when this is over!

If you've been jonesin' for some new puzzles, you are in luck!  I think this picture of Kate and Tilly would be fun, too :-).  

Enjoy!

Stella's Big Birthday Surprise

"A swarm in May is worth a load of hay.  A swarm in June is worth a silver spoon.  A swarm in July, let it fly by!"  A swarm in late August?  Oh you know it...  Too Busy Bees is back in business.

It's very unusual for bees to swarm this late in the year.  It's probably a bad sign about the upcoming season(s).  Or maybe the bees are just as confused by this year's weather as we are.  Or...maybe they heard Stella needed a strong hive to combine with her weak hive (a spring swarm we picked up that has struggled all summer) and flew in to surprise her for her birthday. 

In reality, a swarm this late in the year has very, very little chance of making it through the winter. They just don't have time to get adequately prepared.  If anyone can get a late swarm through though, it's Stella.  The bees may have known that (as they probably originally swarmed out of one of her hives from a couple years ago) and knew what they needed to do.  

We backed The Unit under the branch.  I stood in the back and brushed the bees down into our swarm box.  Set the box on the roof (that Unit is darn handy!)...

...and before too long, they had all flown into the box.  You know you have the queen (the most important bee) when they all follow her into the box.  Remember that for later.

Taped up and ready to head for the bee yard.

This is usually the easiest part of the program.  See the empty spot in the middle of the hive box?  All you have to do is take the tape off, turn the box over, dump the bees into the open spot, carefully slide in the missing frames, put the cover on and you are done.  

I missed the hole (the bees were all clustered on one side of the box) and dumped almost all of them onto the ground next to the hive.  

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(Blurring out big girl words that aren't fit for a family friendly blog... ;-)

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And then I got an apiary birthday gift as well!  I looked in the swarm box and saw the queen, still safe and sound and not buried in tall grass never to be found alive again.  WHEW!!!!  I carefully dumped her into the middle of the hive box...

...and everyone (probably at least a thousand or more bees) marched up the concrete blocks and into the hive.  And they did it so fast that I didn't even have time to get a decent video!

Almost all in.

Now they're really all in.

Stella fixed them some sugar syrup.

And we'll cross our fingers (and Stella will work her butt off keeping them fed all fall ;-). 

Then, to make our morning even better, the neighbor stopped by with his new puppy, Skipper.  Quite the birthday week :-D.

The Things We Do For Our Kids

One of the many things we love about our farm is actually not on our farm. Well, not all the time at least.  Some of the traffic going up and down the lane is folks going to town.  Most of the traffic going up and down the lane is neighbors.

Neighbors checking on neighbors, stopping in to help neighbors, picking on neighbors...and at the end of the day, just riding around visiting.  The vehicle of choice is what has become affectionately known around here as a "Unit".

Need to take that last bale of nasty, moldy hay that had wintered in the baler over to the neighbor to see how she likes her hay?  You take your Unit.  Haha, very funny ;-).  Note Bullwinkle up front.

Stopping by at the end of the day.  Bullwinkle jumps right in.  No pictures of the John Deere gator because that neighbor won't let Bullwinkle near it.  Oh, the inhumanity!

Bullwinkle took one ride and now he is a Unit Junkie.

So Saint Tim finally caved and got him his very own Unit.  Picture from a friend who happened to see Tim driving home from the big city last night.  What are the odds!

He jumped right in and off we go!

I think this picture is funny not only because of the expression on BW's face, but the angle of the house and Hank trotting by.  

I think this one is a scream.  We didn't anticipate how much Weaslie would love the Unit.

It was really too hot for the dogs to be with us, especially in the back, but Kate was not going to let us leave her behind.  She loves the Unit, too.

As did Stella.  We went back to check on her grandkids (the five new calves).  We got a tiny bit of mud on the new (to us) Unit and were having a laugh about what Tim would have to say.  Not to worry, we got a big storm last night and there's not a spec of mud left on it.  But several tree limbs are down and will need cleaned up today.  

Good thing we got a Unit ;-D.