Beekeeping can be therapeutic

[Zweefer]

We just raised them until they were big enough to butcher... Really easy to sex them then

And as promised my coop:

[Zweefer]

Forgot to mention, you can buy only hens, but you pay a lot more for them

[blueblood]

Good deal!

[Gypsi]

I kept saltwater aquariums for years and adored anemones, but became allergic to them sometime around 2011? I had gotten my first beehive in March 2011, and I found that taking up bees made it easier for me to give away the reef, keep my brain active, and helped me quit smoking. (ever try to light up in a beesuit facing ahb?) 

The bees are very enjoyable, as long as I keep it hobby.

[iddee]

Aww, Gypsi, you didn't have to quit. Just put tobacco in your smoker and blow it in through your veil.      

[Marion]

If you want only hens, buy "pullets" not "straight run".

[lazy shooter]

We just raised them until they were big enough to butcher... Really easy to sex them then

And as promised my coop:

You must be going to sell quite a bit of sweet corn.  The chicken house and the garden looks wonderful.  The bees bring some synergy to your farm.  They are a welcome addition.  You're living large.

[Jen]

Really Love that rustic fence 

[LazyBkpr]

That chicken coop have an axle under it?   Move it 15 feet in the fall and plant the garden there next spring.   

   Have a pretty good idea thats not sweet corn behind the coop, but if you catch it early it can be eaten!

[Zweefer]

yes that is an axel.  It was an old ice fishing shack.  if we leave the wheels on, we don't have to pay the fee err i mean permit for an additional standing structure without a building permit.
You are correct Lazy, it is not sweet corn. we are leasing the back 20 to a neighbor who went with corn this year. It still looks a little wierd to me as it has been a hay field the last 5 years

[lazy shooter]

My bad on the sweet corn being field corn.  Yep, on second look, it appears way too tall and vigorous for sweet corn.  I guess the neat garden caused me to conclude that it was sweet corn.

Your place looks like a small "slice of Heaven."

[LazyBkpr]

When I lived in Maine, the law read "permanant" structure, so everyone put skids under their sheds. I even saw 24 x 40 buildings with skids under them so they would not be "permanant"   Definitely looks good out there!!   I haven't been Ice fishing in better than ten years.. the Auger and tip ups are gathering dust..  Have my doubts the auger will even start now.

[Gypsi]

Aww Iddee I had to quit, couldn't afford bees AND cigarettes.

Love the axle under the chicken coop, wish I'd have done that.

[Zweefer]

there is another one in the back hidden by the weeds.   

[Lburou]

Enjoying your thread Marion 

The reference to chicken coups reminds me of a story I heard from a local beekeeper who has one of those coups you move from place to place in the yard.  He had built a very well designed and constructed portable coup and had it in service.  The coup was low enough that one must stoop to get in and move around.  His wife went in one day to get the eggs.  While in there she came face to face with a snake.  Wanting a quick and efficient exit, she realized the spring had closed the door behind her and the locking mechanism had locked her inside the coup.  She could not reach that mechanism from inside.  It was a funny story to hear her tell it, because, while couched and bending low without back up or cell phone, she was forced to hail the neighbor 50 yards away to regain her freedom.  She had never talked to the neighbor before, as they had just moved to their 5 acre pecan orchard.  Well, the newly acquainted neighbor released her, the lock was redesigned and they all lived happily ever after.  Oh, the snake did not bite and it was not poisonous. 

[lazy shooter]

When at my De Leon home, I purchase free range eggs.  The lady that sells them has two large cotton trailers, the old type four wheel trailers, and she moves her chickens from on hay patch to another.  Her chickens feed on the bugs in the hay meadows.  The farmers like having the chickens and she gets free range eggs.  This time of year grasshoppers are more than abundant in our area.  I think she keeps several hundred chickens on two or three trailers.

I wonder if anyone has ever done the same thing with bees.  Where I live you could keep some hives on a trailer and move them from farm crop to farm crop.  I'm too lazy for this, but I think it has some merit.

[apisbees]

A guy use to use a old school bus with the windows broke out and bars welded over the windows. He would take the hives into the mountains for fire weed honey. To move he would wait till night and just drive the bus to a new location, never strapped the hives or screened the bees in.

[Jen]

Apis- "A guy use to use a old school bus with the windows broke out and bars welded over the windows. He would take the hives into the mountains for fire weed honey. To move he would wait till night and just drive the bus to a new location, never strapped the hives or screened the bees in.

   I just Love That!