Dance around, Molly then have some Squirrel Heads and Gravy!

I have been having trouble getting online for a few weeks. But I worked on my computer and got it going again. Well there has been alot go on in the past few weeks. Right now with gas going so high I will probably not be posting as often as I can only get online intown and intown is about 20 miles away.

I have been learning lots of new tunes since I last posted and several of them are still very rough so I wont destroy your ears by playing them for you. But I did think that I might play a couple that are half way decent.

I was asked to try out for a position in a local band by one of the band members so I am learning a few tunes they do so that I can be prepared.

For those of you who are interested, The chickens are not doing very well. Physically they are fine but the egg laying is really bad. I have 26 birds (27 minus 1 that died the day after I bought it) and I am getting about 1 to 3 eggs a day and so far I have not seen an increase. I am very unhappy about this situation and I am wondering if I got shaisted on the deal. It has been 2 weeks and I am hoping that in another two weeks I will be getting at least 18 eggs a day but it doesnt look good. Not sure what I am going to do about it.

All the corn is in, the cucumbers, peas, greenbeans, radish, and of course the spinnach, lettuce, and broccoli (the latter three were planted way back in march), all these are in the ground. We have had some good rain the last few days so we will be able to water less and save electricity to the well pump.

They are calling for a freeze tonight so I am going to be working on that today.

I went to a field trip with our local beekeepers association here "Ozark Beekeepers Association" and watched and worked some the procedure to split a hive to create a nucleus hive (nuc). Learned a tone in one outing and it will only get better. I have discovered that I need to start two hives simultaniously because they say that I will have a better chance of knowing when problems arrive because I can compare one hive to another.

There are a lot of neat things that they do to take care of the bees, one is using a sifter and putting powdered sugar on the frames and brushing them down into the hive. This controles the varroa mites because the bees get the sugar off an in the process they groom the mites off.

I was hoping that I might be able to find a swarm somewhere to cut the cost of startup down but I dont expect that. I need to get two nucs and currently they are selling for $109 each. I am building a second roof and screened bottom board so I can set up two hives instead. At this present time all the locals do is put powdered sugar on the bees until after the fall honey flow and then they will medicate with ....well I dont know yet but I have some time to get started before I need to find that out.

It is so much easier putting point A and B together when I have read about the procedures and information about bees first then go and see it first hand. It was a blast.

Anyway here's my new tunes.

Red Haired Boy:

Dance Around Molly:


Squirrel Heads and Gravy:


Hope you enjoyed.
Should have some beekeeping pictures soon.

Wacky Weather and Chickens

Its funny how its middle April and we are now once again (this happened last year) faced with a frost that could kill crops that have already begun to produce foliage.

Below is a pose of Me and Montie (short for Montezuma- my Colorado stage) she is a great Border collie.

Below a couple pictures of the sun set and me covering up my potatoes to keep from loosing them to frost (it happened to me last year and took for ever for them to re sprout)

From my last post I received an email from a friend here in the Springfield area who I used to work for, and he offered to pay for 10 chickens in exchange for free eggs at $2 per dozen (because he reads these blogs he knew what was going on). To me it sounded like a good bartering deal so I accepted it and with his money and mine I returned this morning (Sunday) with 25 hens and 2 roosters. We went to the biweekly Countyline Swap Meet just a couple miles from us and picked them up. Brandy seen two sheep lambs and I almost didnt make it out of there with chickens! They were the wool less kind...forgot what breed he said they were but they were a male and female not related so they could have made a good start. But I managed to fend her off and we made it out with the chickens. Below is the fun chore of getting them out of the cage after we got back.

In this picture below I am not mad I just thought she was taking a picture only of the chickens...didnt know she was getting me too.

This is my sister Jennifer...looking all stylish in the 35 degree weather.

I believe that this rooster is part game chicken...but oh well...its an egg. I will work the flock to get to one breed.

Below I am grabbing one of the hens the traditional way to get her to the coupe. I am closing them up in there for 2 days then I will let them out in the run. Dont you think this is just a dandy shot!

My sister is shooing them to me from the other end of the cage. It was quite fun!

Next are my Bees. I dont have any. ha ha I am chomping at the bit though to get some in that expensive hive I built. I have been told the Nucs come in sometime in beginning of May and I am on the reserve list to receive a Nuc. Now at a $109 I better come up with the cash quick. I think though I should be fine by that time. There is some money down the pipeline coming just hasnt got here yet.

Well That's all I hope you enjoyed.

Take care.

Short Update

I know its been a while since I posted last. We have been quite busy lately but also its been raining a ton! We have got more rain this year than I have ever seen in my life. My Carrots have been washed down to one end of the garden (part of them anyway). The rest of the crops are doing well especially the spinach and the leaf lettuce.

We decided to set up some of these old fence posts that were laying around and use them to decorate a bit of our yard. Brandy was given two pots of daffodils and we had some already growing so we put the fence there to accentuate them.

I have begun to work on a rock retaining wall out by the chicken coupe to hold the dirt back so that I can level the ground a bit to make way for the Rabbitry I am going to be building soon. Its been at this stage for a few days because of all the rain.
I realized I didnt show you the front of the chicken coupe the last time. It may not have been an accident...I didnt really finish to the point I was hoping...I didnt get the front painted. Its still at that point...kinda hard to paint when it rains every other day or 4 days in a row. But to explain the picture below: the big door is to go in...the little door is so the chickens can go in and out as they please...except for at night. I have a sliding door set up on a pulley system so when I want to open the door I pull a rope and it lifts the door up then I let the door down to close it. The door is up in the air to keep critters from getting in. The worst thing around here is the black snake and opossums.
This Blurry picture was an attempt to take a picture inside a very dark chicken coupe to show the nest boxes...you can also see one of the sassafras poles I used for a roost.
Below are the two girls who are about to have a litter each of babies. They should be born sometime this week or next. Should be fun.
Well not a whole heck of a lot to talk about but I thought I should at least update you. I still haven't got the laying hens because the darn places I have found are selling them for $10 each! That's way over priced and I have been told they can be had for 4 to 5 each. That's a big difference when you are looking to buy 30 chickens! Also we have someone who will be giving us a couple bani chickens...which we intend to use to set on the eggs we want to hatch out into chicks...they are the best mommas.

Anyway I hope you enjoyed.