honey bees

our honey bees have arrived! this is what they looked like when we picked them up. the main lady from our local bee club took bee orders a month of two ago, then drove to Utah to pick up about 100 bee boxes. we purchased 3 hives, and picked up 3 other hives for a friend who was out of town.

 

 the photo above is when they had just arrived and were in the warm sun. the photo below is our friend's bees that spent the night in our garage until he arrived home the next day to pick them up. I thought it was amazing how the bees clumped together, in a form similar to the shape of a top bar honeycomb they create, to keep warm. a few bees got out and still tried to clump with the hive to stay warm through the night.

we got our bees in their bee boxes as soon as we could. my poor hubby spent hours and hours to construct our bee boxes. they are quite expensive to purchase online so we thought we would build them ourselves. we went with top bar because it seems more natural to us, and much simpler/cheaper to harvest honey and wax than a langstroth hive.

the photo below is shows the box that the bees arrived in, placed inside of the bee box. our friend told us to do this and let the bees come out on their own....this did NOT work. after one night, they had begun forming comb inside of this box, rather than on the top bars we had so thoughtfully rubbed with beeswax before their arrival, trying to entice them to begin their combs in the proper place. anyways, we had to go back and dump the bees out of this box and into the bee hive. the bees were a bit pissed at us about this, but with our hats and gloves, we didn't get stung at all. 

below is the photo of my husband dumping the bees out into the top bar.

we came back the following morning to check the bees and make sure they hadn't left. we also had to release the queens. for anyone new to bees, each hive needs a queen. the queen comes in a small box to keep her separate from other bees. usually, there is a type of candy in her box that she eats through, and other bees eat through on their side, so that she is released after a few days when the hive has started making a home. in our case, we popped the cork of the queen box and expected there to be candy inside to prevent the queen from escaping...not so. no candy, so the queen flew away into the dusk of the night. woops. no queen means the hive would have left the following morning. luckily, the head of the bee club had a few extras. we got another queen that night and put her inside the top bar hive, left in the box. the next day, we released her inside the hive where the bees were surrounding her. it turns out, none of the queen boxes had candy inside, so many people with this shipment lost their queens just like we did. we lucked out getting a 2nd one.

 the day we released the queen, the bees were already hard at work.

below is a photo looking inside the hive that had been there for almost 2 weeks. we had been having quite a bit of wind and some rain so we left them alone to do their business for a bit. when we checked on them, we were quite surprised to see all their progress!

 this is just one bar on one hive. we looked inside and they are working on quite a few bars on one end, then working towards the other end of the hive. after 2 weeks, it appears that they are making comb on about 5 bars.

                                     

 

below is a picture of our 3 hives on our property. we put up electric fencing and are using a solar power battery charger. it is working great and will definitely keep all the bears away. we had a lot of bear action in our area last year, though we didn't personally have any issues. but bears love honey and apparently we have a bear living right in our little valley under a tree. we haven't seen her except at night so I don't have any photos.

                            

oh, and one little shot of the sheep loving each other. :)

spring

it is now spring. last time I was on here it was fall. we spent a lot of our winter with colds. we caught it all. the noravirus, influenza B, lots of coughs and sore throats. it really blew our minds. we eat quite healthy, go to bed quite early, wash our hands, take our vitamins...it just hit us really hard this year. we started juicing grapefruit and oranges every day and we went 5 weeks without a cold during February...my 4 year old also turned 5 that month....

and we also received a package of 26 baby chicks for more layers. we went with all speckled Sussex this year and plan on getting all rhode island reds next year. that way, we will know the age of the hens as the years go by.
there was still snow outside so they lived in our laundry room for a few weeks before they moved outside in a fenced corner of our chicken coop with a hot lamp to keep them warm.

with the snow melting here in Durango, Colorado, we are venturing outside with all the endless projects and dreams. my hubby installed a fire pit in our front yard which is getting lots of action. time with the kids, burning weeds I find, and late night fireside chat with my man.

 

my littlest one turned 2 years old this month. that girl is flourishing. she is finally getting words out and much of her fussiness is being replaced with silly behavior...thank goodness!

 this is her eating the batter from her birthday cupcakes. I made this recipe and subbed maple syrup for the white sugar and they were really really good!

my most exciting experience happened just yesterday. I began looking for a sheep shearer and found a man in the area who came over within the hour. he was wonderfully gentle with the sheep and I loved watching my little ewes transform from fluffly big girls to naked looking baby sheep! the fleece is incredibly soft too! this is my first time watching them get sheared and I cannot wait until next year. Here is a photo of them before....

 

 

 and here they are after! quite a change!

 it is really something to see in person and I am thrilled with how long their fleece grew...now we will see how I go about with learning to spin it. I am considering sending it to a mill in the state to get it back and learn how to spin either with my drop spindle or learn on someone's wheel. I don't want to try to do it all this year being that it is my first and then end up not getting any of it done!

 the ewe on the left is rosy and she is a Shetland. she was attacked by a coyote when she was a baby so when she gets stressed she wheezes and is very skittish of people. the ewe walking to the camera is named blue and she is a blue faced Leicester. she has lovely fleece that I can't wait to knit up! her mama was old and died 2 days after she was born so she was bottle fed and is incredibly friendly...too friendly sometimes. she has the personality of an inquisitive, mischievous goat! it has been so much fun to raise sheep! until another time....happy spring!

 

 



the outside...

this home has no shortage of projects that needed, and still need, to be done. as i mentioned before, this was an out building, permitted as a barn. no utilities except electricity...we did the interior first so we could move in, which we did on march 22nd...a day of celebration for all the years to come in this home! then we began decompressing (slightly) and started on the exterior and evaluating the budget.

our driveway was a disaster from all the construction crews coming up in the mud and terrible drainage so that was one of the first projects we did. i wish i had gotten a picture before the work started.

that is quite a luxurious driveway for our standards here in durango...hoping it doesn't get beat up this winter!

next came the chicks! 19 to be exact, then we had to start over because a dog got in and took out 16 of them when they were about 7 weeks old. so sad but a good lesson.

 this green vintage semi trailer doesn't look like much but it really truly is! a neighbor couldn't get rid of this, we paid $100 to have it dropped off at our house and it is a bear proof, warm and safe shelter that is big enough to house 23 of our chickens and enough room on the other side of the interior for 5 to 7 goats and sheep. it is a treasure!

 ahhh. then for the garage. as construction goes, this took way too long and had a few problems with door size and 2 suv's, however, it all worked out and we made it large enough to have a mudroom for the entry into our home. in this lovely little mudroom there is a washer and dryer which i missed dearly! didn't have one for 5 months, with the four of us, i was going to the laundromat constantly.

life is getting easier with each project. my husband ran all the electrical and installed everything! he can do it all!

mudroom/laundry before....and after!

picture of the valley we look out on, taken back in the spring.

and then, best of all, we were able to add a porch! a covered porch! no more rain coming in through the windows...at least on the front of the house. this little barn actually looks like a house now. we couldn't be more excited!!

of course, the list goes on. there is paint, gutters for rain water catchment, landscaping, a front yard fence and green not-grass, so much more to do. but for now, we have planted a tree and moved rock around to put some greenery in the front to plant. we don't have to walk out our front door onto dirt and this living in the country is getting easier!

 

we are still in the middle of moving and replacing fencing, putting up sheep and goat fencing, getting creative for water runoff and snow that will soon be melting, prarie dogs, vegetable garden, and it goes on and on.

but this is our home. our first true, we bought it and own it and love it home. we have big dreams and we have already accomplished so much in the first year. it is a good place to be.

long time again

it has been months since i have been here. i haven't been able to find the time, nor the want to be here until now. life is a bit more manageable now. we finished converting the barn into a house, after having to be out of our rental and stayed at my mom's for 3 weeks. since then, it has been projects coming at us nonstop. all good stuff, but we are having to hold ourselves back from wanting to do everything at once.

here are some pics of the progression of our home build...

Before drywall went in, we put pictures in each of our rooms of a happy moment so that the pictures will be there forever.

our master shower my husband designed





this is our 2nd bathroom....both baths have brick floors which we love and work great with radiant floor heat.

 our great room, where all the action happens

i will save outside pictures for another time...that is a whole other story!