Sunday, April 3, 2011

Pooped!

I'm pooped.  I spent the better part of the week getting up at 4:30 each morning to take the baby rabbits out to nurse, but once they hit 11 days and their eyes were open, I felt a little better about leaving them unsupervised overnight.  It is SOOOO nice to sleep through the night.  They are starting to move around the nest box a little and they really squirm when I pick them up, so it's hard to take a photo of them, but here are some I did manage to snap. 

This is what I see when I look in the nest box.  Baby butts!















Isn't this one just the sweetest!















This one was nibbling on hay while I was taking its picture.















And this one was exploring while its siblings were nestled in the background.
















It has been raining non-stop and been very chilly most of the week, so there hasn't really been a good time to check the bees.  We've been keeping their feeder full of sugar water and have been patiently waiting to make sure the queen was released from her box and the bees have been drawing out comb.  I've watched them a few times during sunny periods and have seen pollen coming in, so I knew they were working.  Today, we finally had a good sunny warm day to open the hive and check its progress.

This frame is covered with bees, and you can see they've drawn out the comb from the top to the bottom.















This is a close-up of a frame with the bright yellow pollen they've been collecting over the past few days.















The main thing we wanted to see when we opened the hive was the queen, and this year, our queen is marked.  I was so happy to get a marked queen because to an untrained eye, she is really hard to find.  Do you see the neon blue dot?  That's our queen!















Now we just need our mentor to come by and make sure we aren't overlooking anything important.  He caught a swarm for us from one of his hives, so we should have a second colony soon as well.  Having two colonies really helps because it gives us a comparison.  We can check them against each other to help determine if one isn't doing as well as the other one. 

A friend of a friend was thinning out her ornamental flowers and offered us free plants, so we took advantage of the generosity and drove to her house today to get them.  Many of them are attractive to honeybees, so I am happy to have them.  We came home loaded down with plants, and I've spent most of today transplanting and did not even plant them all.  Finally at dark, I stopped. 

I do have one more project to share from today, but I'll share it next post.  I'm going to relax for the first time today.  Like I said, I'm pooped!

Happy homesteading,


Candace 

6 comments:

  1. Wow, you are living my dream! I live with my boyfriend in a rented apartment in the centre of Brussels, with no garden... But I dream of one day being able to do what you do. For now, I'm happy with the herbs I grow on my window sill, and my crazy cat... And with reading your blog, for inspiration! I'm so glad I discovered it today :)

    xx Viola

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  2. Congratulations on keeping those kits. That is a lot of work! I bought a pair of french angoras last fall but haven't tried breeding them yet. Maybe soon!

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  3. Viola: Wow, Brussels! Welcome to my blog and thanks for that sweet comment. Doing what you can with what you have and building from there is the best approach. It's what has brought me to this point, and I know it will get you where you want to be in the future. By the way, cats are my first love. Given the choice, I would always choose my cats!
    David: Thanks for reading my blog! Raising baby rabbits has been a totally new learning experience for me, and it is much harder than I imagined. Maybe next time will be easier. But each day as they get cuter, it makes the time and effort worth while. Good luck to you if you breed!

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  4. Hello! I just stumbled onto your blog from a comment you left on Jenna's blog (at Cold Antler). I like what I'm seeing so far, so I've added you to my blog list on the side of my blog.
    I love your rabbits! I can't wait to see them grow. Thanks for the great photos.

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  5. Aaaaawww man.... I seriously need one of those baby ewok/koalas in my life! I've never seen a rabbit like that before. Amazing.

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  6. Dan: It's funny you called them ewoks because I think their daddy, Blue Moon, looks just like an ewok. He's in some of my other rabbit posts.
    Shari: I love Jenna's blog and wish I were half the writer she is. Thanks for adding me to your blog list. I've had the rabbits since January, and they have been quite an experience so far, but overall, they are so beautiful and sweet, and the babies are just to die for!

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