Spring is Here ~ Welcome to all the new beginnings!

A few new things this spring.

After a couple years of picking fresh blueberries from other farms, we decided to plant a few blueberry bushes of our own.

A lot of work and they won't yield any blueberries this year.. But exciting nonetheless!

The work involved was blending a mix of sand, organic soil and peat moss to each pot.

This year we have a new egg incubator. Currently there are 11 days left. I am happy to have a new incubator, however, it's a little tricky to add water (for humidity) so the humidity has fluctuated more than I would have liked it to, so we will see. You know I will be posting some super cute baby chicks pics if all went well.

On to the every spring things we do.

The animals always have a lot of hair to shed this time of year. I love shedding them out. Getting all that loose hair off is oddly satisfying.

The garden.

We made it a little bigger this year and I started more than I ever have in seeds. Mike made some super awesome solar boxes and they are working out great. It's almost time to put them in the garden, but I'm a little protective of all this hard work. For the next two weeks or so, they will remain in the solar boxes. Here they are just a week or so after I put them in the box.

And here they are just yesterday.

So far, we have two different types of lettuce, kale, radishes, cucumbers, carrots, green peppers and jalapeno peppers. We will also have tomatoes, spaghetti squash, snow peas ans sweet potatoes.

Good thing we made it larger!

The Apiary. Another thing we expanded is our apiary (or bee yard.)

We have two new queens that arrived last week and they are doing well in their nucs. Our other two hives are also doing well. AND we have two more nucs coming soon. We are seeing a lot of pollen coming in and the nectar flow has begun! I find it fascinating to observe all the different colors of pollen coming in.. then trying to make an educated guess on which sources they are collecting from.

From my research and observations. I think the red comes from the massive amounts of henbit I am seeing this year. Why purple turns red, I am not sure.

The yellow I am almost certain is from the dandelions.

The orange? I am not sure. Maybe it's just a dark yellow.

This is a really busy time for the bees and for us tending to them. It's always exciting to go out and see what these little wonders have done since the last time we looked into their world.

This spring, so far, feels like a "normal" spring. Warm days, cool nights and a mix of sunshine and rain.

Easter this the coming weekend so I made something fun I have never done before. I had seen pictures of crayons that are cut up, melted & reshaped into fun molds. So, I tired it. It worked! Each grandchild will get a set of these fun farm animal shaped crayons. I am probably more excited about them than the kids will be!

It's been a fun and busy spring so far. It's no surprise that I get my hands dirty (I love getting my hands dirty!) This inspired a new Co-Op Chicks Product. All Natural Garden Hands. Made with organic cane sugar, Organic coconut oil & Sweet Orange essential oil. It's great for really scrubbing hands, yet because of the coconut oil, leaves them soft. Can't forget to mention the ever so pleasant citrus aroma!

For a limited time I am offering Garden Hands in this berry basket adorned with raffia for only $10! Makes a great gift. Look for it under the "Scrubs" tab as well the "Just Hatched" tab.

SPECIAL TREAT!

Mike and I are just now going in to our 2nd year of beekeeping. Last weekend we got to witness something pretty amazing. While it's not unusual to see the queen when inspecting hives, it is pretty darn unusual to see her laying eggs. I was so thrilled to see this as well as record it on video. So here it is, a rare occurrence for us humans to see. The queen doing her thing.