He's A Big Boy Now

Chickens can really be funny some times. This morning I put my stainless steel garbage can out on the patio so I could clean it later. I didn't think anything more until I went to feed the goats and horse. Low and behold Ozzie found himself in the stainless steel and thought it was an intruding rooster. He had to protect his territory and Harriet and it was really quite comical. Harriet sat on a patio chair watching her hero protect her. When she finally got down, Ozzie pushed her away from the intruder with the down wing position, herding her to safety. After all, she is his alone, isn't she? He has been doing this to her all morning. I guess he needs to let her know he is the boss and she goes where he tells her. No other boyfriends for her! Funny thing is...she follows him around everywhere. He doesn't have to do a thing. I finally had to pick the can up and put it in the house so he wouldn't hurt himself.

Meet The Nelsons

Not just your ordinary couple. This is Ozzie and Harriet. They are a pair of Fawn Duckwing Bantams. I went to a yard sale yesterday (in some area's they are known as tag sales) and saw this couple and fell in love with them. I'd been thinking about getting some chickens, but not sure if they would work out here. At the moment, they are in a dog exercise pen that is covered. They have their water and a place to roost, a place to nest and even their own umbrella to shade them when the sun is overhead. I can take them out, let them roam around and then catch them to put them up. I saw them mating yesterday and am hoping to find some tiny eggs soon!

Look how they love to pose for the camera...


Ozzie is on the left, Harriet is on the right.

Apitherapy News: Video: Bees Swarm, Take Over NYC Sidewalk

Apitherapy News: Video: Bees Swarm, Take Over NYC Sidewalk

Click on the link above and check this out! Bees in NYC. Can you believe it? So glad that a beekeeper came along to get them to safety!

Here We Go Once More

Well, the new window came in for the bathroom. Now that there was a wall where the opening had to be cut to put the new window in. Another mess in the bathroom. At least Darla was having a good time looking out!

Here is the new window waiting to be trimmed in...



Now on to getting the bathroom done!

Baby Bluebirds about to fledge

Yes, I have been watching them. There is a family of Bluebirds that have taken up residence in an Alabama shaped Bluebird house that is close to our house. There are two youngsters. The dad seems to be the one who feeds and cleans up after them. Here is a video of the second one fledging today.

Oops...they did it again!

Oh my. I've not been in my hive to check on them to see how they were doing. Apparently they were doing too well and needed more space. The girls swarmed today. I was outside working in the yard and heard an all too familiar whir and buzz that was coming from the apiary. I looked, and sure enough the girls were swarming. Bees were everywhere flying madly about. All I could do was to stand and watch to see where they would decide to take up temporary residence. Luckily, it was on a low branch. I got one of my neighbors to come over and help me collect the little bundles of joy to put them in a new hive. Hopefully, they will like their new digs and stay put. I'll find out in a day or two.



Now here is a closeup of the little darlings...

Jackson

My goats can be a lot of fun. Jackson is a purebred Nubian and is my first goat. He was raised as a bottle baby and was raised in the house. He thinks he is special. We took naps on the couch together. He never pottied in the house. I can go into the pasture and pat the ground next to me and he will lie down to get pats.

If you go to my YouTube site http://www.youtube.com/user/badbarefootchef you can see a video of him. Although he does lie down with me, the camera is just too much of a curiosity for him to deal with.

Funny boy he is!

Spring Is In The Air

Wow, what a difference a week makes. Last Sunday we were pelted with snow and today it is 74 and sunny. I guess that is the way spring goes. It certainly is nice to see some of the flowers made it out from that blanket of white. Hopefully, the white stuff will take a hike until winter is back.

The Opportunists

We've had some really strange weather here this winter. Warm one day, then freezing the next. It is really hard on the bees. I lost one of my colonies during the snow. I took out all of the frames to clean up the hive body and super. The frames had capped honey in them, so I took the ones from the supers and harvested them and then left the hive body frames with the capped honey out for my other colony to clean up. They sure did love it as you can see in the short video. I went into their hive box before they found what I left for them to see if they were doing ok, and sure enough they are going like gang busters. The hive is full of bees and they have started building comb on top of their super so I went ahead and put another super for them to fill. This one will be for me. March is the time that our bees get going here in Georgia and hopefully this colony will do well with their honey production this year.

Oh, and by the way, this colony is the swarm I caught last year.

Snow In Georgia

You wouldn't believe it is March here and spring is around the corner. We had snow for several hours on Sunday. It was a light wet snow and the flakes got to be the size of a quarter. No light dusting this time. We got about 7 inches. In the photo, I took the picture the next morning after the snow was starting to pack and melt. We were fortunate that we didn't lose power like a lot of folks around here. Here in the south we aren't prepared for snow. In my county, the schools were out for 2 days. I took this short clip during the afternoon. If you go to my YouTube page http://www.youtube.com/user/badbarefootchef , you can see more short clips that I took of the snow.