The bees have arrived

This morning we welcomed 10,000 or so new members to our family. At 6 am the phone rang. It was the local post office informing us that our bees had arrived. They seemed rather eager for us to get there as soon as possible to remove them from the post office.
My husband had set up the hive last weekend in preparation for their arrival. After reading several books about beekeeping, he'd decided that he didn't really need any protective equipment other than the bee hood (bees will attempt to crawl into your nose and ears). Plus we'd seen a really good movie called Ulee's Gold, starring Peter Fonda as a beekeeper. Peter Fonda walked freely amongst the bees ( which were probably computer generated) sans gloves or any other protective gear. My husband was going to be the Bee Whisperer.
The bees arrived in the wooden and mesh cage pictured above. Several were loose and clinging to the cage, so the person at the post office happily gave us the plastic USPS tote that the cage was in and sent us on our way.
Our next door neighbors had bees for several years, so they had all of the gear. When it came time to put the bees in the hive, I suggested to hubby that he go next door to borrow additional safety gear. "No, I don't need that stuff. It's all about remaining calm. They won't sting you if you stay calm". Ooookay. For protective gear, he opted for a fishing raincoat and the bee hood.
The queen bee is in a separate little box. The box is corked, and after you remove the cork she is still kept in there with a piece of sugar "candy". Within several days, the worker bees will eat the candy, releasing the queen. Hopefully by then they will have decided that they like her, and will take care of her. If not... we have to get a new queen. After she is placed in the hive, it's time to install the rest of the bees.



When it comes time to release the bees into the hive, you basically kind of bang the cage until they come out and go into the hive. Turns out bees don't really like being banged around. The Bee Whisperer ending up running and getting stung once. I was 40 feet away, and one bee ended up stuck in my hair, which involved running and flailing.


In the end, the bees were safely transferred to their new home. Our neighbors kindly brought over their unused bee equipment, including a full safety suit which will be used from now on, or until we learn the art of remaining zen calm with bees crawling on us.

More chicks!

Our son had really wanted a specific breed of chicken for the fair this year. The breed is Polish, and as adults they look like they are wearing hair metal wigs.

The feed mill where I purchased our other chicks didn't have any available. We decided that we would try to hatch some eggs in an incubator. I bought 6 eggs from ebay, had them delivered. All 6 eggs arrived intact. For the 3 week incubation period, we carefully turned them 3 times a day, and made sure that the temperature and humidity stayed correct. All 6 eggs were duds. Absolutely nothing developed in them at all.
Back to the drawing board. Most hatcheries only sell batches of 25 chicks. We did NOT want 25 more chicks. I found a hatchery that would sell us just 4. $12 worth of chicks costs $46 with shipping.
This morning the phone rang at 6:30 am. The post office telling us that the chicks had arrived. I went to pick them up after the kids went to school. As soon as I walked into the building I could hear them peeping. All 4 were healthy and happy. They ship them in a box with straw type material and a heat pack to keep them warm.
At first the older chicks were afraid of the babies when I put them together, but they seem to be getting over it. The others are 2 weeks old now, and have doubled in size. Fluff is being replaced by feathers.

Chick Day!

Our 9 year old son raises "fancy" chickens for 4H, to show at the fair in August. We have 7 older chickens from last year, and we just added 7 babies on Tuesday. We special ordered several different breeds from a feed mill about an hour away, and picked them up on Tuesday. Fancy chickens are breeds that are considered more or less "ornamental". Not used for meat or known for producing lots of eggs, though they do lay some eggs. Pets basically.
All of ours are bantam breeds, which are about half the size of most other chickens. This year we got one Araucana, 3 Buff Brahmas, 2 Mille Fleurs, and one blue Silkie. We also have 6 Polish breed chicken (they look like they are wearing Tina Turner wigs as adults) eggs in an incubator which should hatch, or not, in afew days.
Baby chicks are cute, but it is quite a lot of work to care for them. They tend to be quite messy, especially once they get a little older and have sawdust in their cage. Which is a baby swimming pool in our laundry room. They can't go out to the barn until they are fully feathered, which will be about 6 weeks. I'm hoping that in 2 weeks or so we'll be able to put them in the garage with a heat lamp.
I put a marshmallow peep in with them to show how small they are. Not much bigger than a marshmallow peep with legs! I also learned that real chicks are afraid of marshmallow chicks.