Bees and Bees and Baby Bumps

So much good news.

I was clearing the bees doorway yesterday afternoon.  It was above freezing and such a beautiful day without a breath of wind. I put my ear to the beehive and there they were, making their disapproval  known with a deep far away baseball cheer of buzzing. Good bees.

Later in the afternoon, I was brushing Daisy and felt her calf kick.

Baby rippled along her belly like a little Loch Nessie.  Let me count how many days the little tike has left in there.. 39.

Thirty-Nine days left. See how she is carrying to her left side. (below) Her left not our left. This is very common to have the calf bulge out to one side. Left or right. When baby begins to engage, preparing for birth, her sides will even up and drop. Seeing this bulge out to one side means all is well in that department. Of course not all cows will do this.

Daisy will have a big calf. She is an Ayrshire. Queenie is a Hereford – she will have a much smaller calf. So I did not expect quite such a big belly on her. Though it looks like she is going to give birth to a box.

Also she is not due for another three weeks after Daisy.  Maybe she is just full of good hay!

Tilly practicing her smoke rings. Little Slapper.   She is the noisiest animal on the property. I opened up the big barn doors to the sun and all the birds tip toed into the warmth.  They hate snow so have been inside for ages now and loved having the sun in to visit.

An unusual line-up. Son of Neanderthal Man,  Son of Son of Neanderthal Man and Son of Son of Son of Neanderthal Man (also known as Bob). Neanderthal Man was our first rooster, he had very feathery feet. He died years ago.  Though I have only been here seven years so it cannot be that many years ago.

And Sheila was so chipper today that we are going to start her procedure next Wednesday with a hormone shot and breed her three to five days later. I very very much hope this works.

Last night I bought three pounds of Russian Bees (read an interesting article here) and a Russian Queen to be delivered in the late spring. Russian bees have a natural resistance to the mites that are plaguing the more common prettier Italian bees. (Varroa Mites have  only recently invaded  American hives (since the 1980’s) but they have been in Russia  for hundreds of years and the bees have developed this resistance over a very long time.) Plus Russians are better in temperature extremes, so my father and our research tell me. They are not as pretty as Italians, but I am going to begin a hive and do a comparison.

I would like to have four hives in the end. Everyone loves honey.

That was a good news post! It is -5F (-20C) this morning .. sounds so commonplace now, doesn’t it,  but we have the potential to rise above freezing again today. Delicious.

Good morning. The light is coming – soon it will be dawn.

I hope you all have a lovely day.

your friend on the farm

celi