Backyard Chickens & Bees

I think the title says it all. While I am not vanquished, I will concede that they have won this round. The little buggers even managed to bend the copper stub-out bracket that was holding the fountain in place! It’s not super thick, but still was fairly sturdy. No signs of fish, either, so I [...]

I woke up this morning to find that the water garden was all trashed, the lilies were shredded, the water was murky from the dirt in the lily pots being dumped, the bricks in the bottom and the pots were upturned, and one of the fish (the tri-color shubunkin) was missing. Stupid raccoons. I was [...]

So, the wine barrel water garden was put in a couple of months ago to provide a water source for the bee hive(s). The basic idea is that when you have all the proper components in place it will take care of itself and there is no need to do anything except add new water [...]

This month has been super BUSY, what with the bees swarming, the chickens getting bigger, and all the salads and peas that have been eaten. This past week gave us a nice respite via a road-trip vacation to Park City, Utah to see Veronica’s cousin be married and to party with the rest of her [...]

V and I spent this past Memorial Day weekend down in San Francisco with my sister and brother-in-law. While it was very nice to be away from work, the farm, and the cats for five days, we still couldn’t resist the urge to do some yard-work, get their back yard all cleaned out, and put [...]

So, all the talk about getting a proper water source for the bees finally drive me to follow through and actually do something about it. We have a small water source for the bees, but they will probably quickly outgrow it once the summer gets here, the bees are in full production mode, and are [...]

Ah, Spring. In particular… ah, April and May and rain and all I have to do is keep the weeds and bindweed at bay, and ramble on about it all. The gardens are all coming along nicely, despite my best efforts. I thought I had somehow killed all the raspberries by missing a day of [...]

So no, even with all the madness associated with the bee installation and building up of the chicken coop and pen, I have not been neglecting my plant starts! In fact, they are moving along nicely. Some of the marigolds are already outside (along with some new bee balm that I bought the other day), [...]

Cloches. Cold frames. Hot frames. Huh? Yeah, that was my initial thought when I started planning the gardening for this year and looking into ways that could improve the yield and extend the season. I’ve seen many of them around, typically built out of very inexpensive PVC pipe, but never really understood the benefits that [...]