Thursday, June 3, 2010

Pet Partnerships ......Bees......Other stuff.......

The hardest part of pet partnerships is when it is time to say good-bye.  Snoop, the reddish colored dog is not doing well.  He quit eating while I was out of town and Brian was worried he was not going to make it until I got back, he then started eating a little bit.  When I got home he would not eat again....then I offered hot dogs and for a couple of days he ate those.  He is back to not eating and is just old and tired.  He is not in pain....just tired and worn out.  Doing the right thing hurts the most ..... but how do you know when it is right?  I am realizing it isn't always black and white.  Or maybe it is and I just refuse to see it right now.  In a perfect world he will just go to sleep and drift away while chasing bunnies in his dreams.

Now on to some happy stuff!!!

Our little rock star Batman wants to be a mustang photographer!  :-)  He is trying to take my camera case that is attached to my belt loop.




I love snakes!  I love snakes more when I know they are there.....snake (and all other critter) surprises freak me out a bit!  This big guy freaked me out.  I walked in and hopped up on the step to put my feed bucket down, hopped back down here and almost stepped on this guy!  I sure do hope there are more of them in the barn because our mouse problem is out of control!  I don't like putting out poison, and we can't seem to keep barn cats because the donks chase them.  :-)

 


Brian and his bees are doing great!  Many have hatched so now there are more than the 20,000 he originally put in the hives, so it is time to expand the hive condo!  Brian is putting on another box the same size as these, so now they will be 2 story tall hives.  If he doesn't give them more room, they might swarm and leave to find someplace else to live.  
The word swarm is kind of misleading.  I always pictured bad stuff when I heard 'swarm'.  All it means is the bees get together and move on.  It doesn't mean they are swarming all around you getting ready to do mean things (altho they can).

Brian is smoking the bees to get them a little more mellow...

 

Here is one of the frames with A LOT of bees on it, and they have been busy!  
Busy as a bee!  Ha ha!

The tool in Brian's right had is used to pry the frames out of the box.  The bees have 'cemented' everything together.  They seal up gaps thru the whole hive.


 


Okay, this one tells a story.  The darker looking cells at the top and center of the picture have gel in them and there are larvae in the gel.  The worker bees are feeding the larvae to keep them healthy.  Once they get to a certain age they 'cap' the cell off, like in the bottom center.  The larvae complete their growing, then hatch out as a bee.  The shiny stuff at the bottom right is honey!  We won't be harvesting this year.  This year they will keep their honey supply for food.  The goal is to help them become a strong hive so they can survive the winter.
 
 

TA DA!!!!  We now have a 2 story hive!  The jars in front of the hive are filled with sugar water to feed the bees.  It is good for the newly hatched bees, and also good in case there are not a lot of blooms within a 2 mile radius.



Here is Halo looking all cute!!! 



Millie:  GOT MILK????




We were driving around looking at land, and we came across this shotgun shell mailbox!  Love it!!




Then we came across this motorcycle 'decoration' when we went to Moberly, Mo.  We are wondering if the eyes light up.  They looked painted over so it was hard to tell. 



That is all I have for now....I am headed to Hutchinson, KS to the Correctional Facility for their wild horse Open House.  They have some mustangs trained by inmates along with several ungentled horses.  I have never been to or seen anything like this, and I am looking forward to it.  Will have pictures of that when I get back......

So until then....................

THE END!



Until later.....Karen and Tripp


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