Brian took his beekeeping class with the guy who owns this place, and this was my first time there. Brian needed bee supplies, and I wanted to see what critters he had. It was a fun afternoon!
I wish I would have taken picture of the hive they have inside the store. It is like a shadow box with glass on both sides and a divider in the middle. The bees can come and go by a tube in the wall, and it is just as cool as watching a fix aquarium. Art, the owner, located the queen bee for us and we watched the worker bees taking care of the queen. It was awesome!
Here is the next best thing.....Madison the Bee!
Art has emus! I love emus and would love to have a few. This is what I learned today - their meat is hypoallergenic, so people who are allergic to beef or pork can eat emu meat! Who knew? Well now I know and so do you! ;-) They start laying eggs in January, so Art says that he needs to take the eggs and put them in an incubator to hatch them out. When left to their own vices, the male is the one who will sit on the eggs for 50 something days with no food or water. I saw a picture and the babies have stripes like a baby guinea. He has a few that he hatched out that are now adults. I kept hearing a 'drumming' sound and found out the noise was coming from the emus. I figured it was the males flirting with the girls, but Art says the females 'drum' and the males 'grunt'. We never did hear any grunt noises.
Art says the males are more friendly than the females. Oh yes, Brian had plenty of witty things to say about that! :-)
Their eyes are so pretty.......
It was hilarious when they would chase each other around. They start out with quick movements then go into a smooth stretched out stride that swooshes....okay, it doesn't really swoosh out loud, just in my head. I LOVE THEM!
Emus winter well too. They all have shelter but don't use it. Art said this past winter he would come out and there would be a big lump of white in the middle of the pens. They would get totally ice covered but were fine. They are also very hardy against disease.
The kids got to feed the baby goats. They sure are cute!
Madison has asked for a goat more than once. Easy answer for me - NO! Who would take care of it? Me! No goat - we will just go visit Art. :-)
(I grew up with a mother who loved her goats....and who wouldn't when you had kids - them being us - to milk the darn things! I always said I would never have goats after that!)
Okay, this is funny. "Jordan, do you want to feed a baby goat?" "No." ME: "JORDAN, GO FEED THE BABY GOAT!" HA HA! So here is a 14 yr old kid who doesn't question me and heads over to feed a baby goat even tho it might not be cool. Hee hee! He had fun!
Art has the granny goat that started this herd. I thought that was neat. :-)
It was time to put the babies back in the pen. They are small enough to fit thru the wire so they kind of come and go as they please. They sure are cute little things!
This is a mule foot piglet. Mule foot pigs don't have a cloven hoof - theirs is solid like a mule hoof. They are a heirloom pig. Brian has checked into these.....after seeing them I knew we would be talking pigs again. Now I have wanted a couple pigs for a while because they are fun, but we really don't have a good place for them right now. Well, on the way home the topic of pigs and a place for them came up. Will keep you posted on that one.....it might be a while, but I have a feeling we will end up with heirloom pigs. The piglets were so cute!
Here is Mama pig and piglets. They were having a hay day with some watermelon.
It was a fun afternoon checking out the bee hives at the apiary and checking out the animals. The pigs enjoyed the mud, the mud did not affect the emus much, and the goats were goats and were playing and jumping over everything they could touch.
That is all for now.....
Until later....Karen and Tripp who doesn't think I need emus...
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