New Chicks

It's a little late in the season, but our grouchy hen who has been sitting on the next growling and pecking at anyone who tries to take her eggs . . .
. . . hatched an adorable baby chick. It's a cross. The father is probably our frankenstein rooster Stitch, who my children found sliced nearly in half by some nameless predator, and my husband sewed up with embroidery thread or dental floss (I can't remember which) while my nine year old daughter held it down, and then he nursed it back to health in a box in our laundry room. We thought he would die, for sure. But, that Stitch is tough! He's a miracle rooster, and truly enjoys being king of the harem here now.

The mother could be any one of the hens, we don't know which. (When a hen is setting, my husband steals and marks a couple of eggs from other chickens and puts them under the setting hen to increase the chances of hatching.) Surrogate(?) momma was sitting on eight or nine eggs and only this little cutie hatched. We'll see what his mama was when he grows up a little. Maybe a Rhode Island Red.

At any rate, we have new babies! Yipee!

Honey Harvest

Last week we harvested five gallons of delicious honey. Here are some pictures of my amazing husband at work with thousands of (sedated) bees. First he smokes the hive he's chosen to raid.

You can see the frames in the box here, with masses of bees on it. Do you see the white wax over top of the honeycomb in one of the frames? That's capped over honey, which means it's cured and ready for us to extract.
We take the honeyframes in the house one at a time (you don't want to uncap delicious honey outside where the bees will catch wind of it and come looking for their treasure. He uses an electric knife that heats up when you plug it in to gently remove the thin cappings from the honeycomb. (We melt that down later, clean it up, strain it, and use it for lipgloss, soap, and other things. I haven't tried candles yet, but I will. Someday. When I have time.)

Then he puts the frames in a spinner, and turns the crank on the top to pull the honey out of the uncapped comb with centrifugal force. (Did I spell that right?) It comes out at the bottom into a honey strainer. Kaela loves this part.


Here she is watching over the process.

The bees hang around while we spin out the honey, mildly annoyed, but we spin far away from the hives so that we don't a major attack. I'll come back tomorrow and post a picture of the strained, bottled, and labelled honey. Mmmmmmm. It's delicious this year.