In which we’re all a-Robbin’ and a-Killin’
Alright, time to update some of the happenings around here. Briefly:
Rabbits: This week we killed four of our first batch of youngsters. They were nine weeks old, and dressed out at a little over two pounds average, so pretty good. I used what is euphemistically called “cervical displacement” for the actual killing — I broke their necks. On these younger rabbits, it’s not difficult to do, although it’s very hands-on and requires that you “steel yourself” for it. I guess we humans tend to feel better about less personal methods of killing, but we don’t have heat-seeking missiles, and this is quick and painless for the rabbit. Besides, I don’t want to distance myself from the act of killing. The fact is that these rabbits are losing their lives so that we can incorporate them into our bodies. Meat is a bloody and serious thing, and I want to appreciate that fact. I hold them and talk to them gently as I prepare to do it, and it is over quickly. Tonight we had dumple-bunny (akin to chicken dumplings, but better), and it was outstanding.
Bees: Two weeks ago, we pulled on our hoods and robbed up the place. Our strong hive gave us a super of honey — just over three gallons! We were very excited about it, and still are, although that excitement was somewhat (very) tempered by the fact that they swarmed on two consecutive days the following week. That’s right, on Tuesday a small swarm left the hive, then on Wednesday a large swarm left the same hive. Apparently this is not unheard of, any more than a single hive swarming three times in less than three weeks is unheard of. But still, come on! Our weak hive still doesn’t seem to have recovered either. Today we got into both hives, and I’d say the news is grim. The strong hive (which just swarmed) seems to be doing okay, all things considered, although they were pretty angry with us for being there. We did find an uncapped swarm cell, so we’re hoping that the new queen has gone off on her nuptial flight — mating with several drones and storing a supply of sperm that will last her throughout her reign as queen. During which she will lay up to 1,500 eggs per day! Anyhow, we’re hoping that she’s off having a great time, and that she will make it back to the hive (75% chance on average). The weak hive is producing drones. Lots of drones. And the cells that have eggs in them don’t look good. There are multiple eggs in many of them, the eggs aren’t standing nicely on end, and the pattern of laying seems completely haphazard. There are developing larvae, but all of the capped brood are drones (you can tell — bigger cells with domed-out caps). It all points to laying workers. The workers never had a nuptial flight, so never mated, but are nevertheless capable of laying eggs that will develop into functional bees. But only drone bees, which are worse than no bees at all since they can’t forage or clean, and can’t even feed themselves. They are truly only useful for their sperm. Do you want to know what we consider them useful for? Letting Tretan hold a bee. That boy is an insect-holding maniac, and it drives him cross-eyed crazy to not be able to hold bees. So when we were in the hives, I picked up a drone, which has a penis instead of a stinger (still breaks off when used, the bee still dies) and took it to Tretan and Gabriel to hold. They loved it. Tomorrow we’ll call someone who’s more knowledgeable than we are, and get a recommendation about how to deal with our myriad problems. But I’m thinking we’ll end up combining the hives, assuming the queen comes back to the strong hive.
honey in flying wedge formation
Chickens: Steady state. We’re starting to get a few pullet eggs from the young ones, and the older ones still aren’t laying that well — closer to an egg every other day on average rather than three out of four days as they used to do.
Guess which one's the pullet egg
Garden: Beans, yellow squash, zucchini coming on very well, tomatoes closing in, other squash, watermelons, okra, bush beans, peppers coming along steadily. Beetles painting our squash leaves with eggs. I harvested our garlic today — 25 bulbs. We’re going to have to come up with some good garlic recipes, because we still haven’t finished using the 18 we harvested last year.
Woodworking: I’m working on perfecting my solar food dehydrator. Of course, if we don’t get a few consecutive days of sunshine, I may never be able to test it. The last couple of days have been cloudy/rainy and in the lower 70′s (the only difference from the previous couple of months being the lower temperature), and we’re looking at rain for the next five days at least. (!!!!!)
By the way, we’ve updated the Latest Happenings page finally — with a picture, too.
I’m glad to hear someone’s garden is meeting with success. The first year garden at Raven Ridge has, so far, been a disaster. We got a little lettuce, a dozen radishes and a few carrots. From ~20 tomato plants I expect to get about 8 tomatoes. What is strange is that almost everything looks healthy. Most of the plants are bright green ( not fluorescent, just happy ) and there is little sign of insect damage, mineral imbalance or NPK issues. The plants are all just really small. For instance, corn plants that after 2 months stand between 12 and 18 inches. Zucchini squash plants that could be covered with a 5 gallon bucket. Research on the web has, thus far, led to nothing of value. Our working theory is that there was some hormone in the horse manure which I used for fertilizer that somehow stunts plant growth.
I have pulled most of the plants and am in the process of adding a bunch of compost into the beds. Then I’ll plant some fall crops and see if we can do any better.
We bet you can’t wait to get those horse hormones into your system via a big, ripe, juicy tomato. Seriously, we have rabbit manure free for the taking if you want some. No unnatural hormones involved (unless the well water we use for their water is contaminated). And rabbit manure can be used fresh. We mix it with compost or straw and pile it on.
We, too, have a couple of summer squash plants that can be covered by a 5-gallon bucket. They’re in the “new” part of the garden where nothing has been grown before and which has never benefited from legume crops, compost, rabbit manure etc. The squash plants we planted as part of the “three sisters” in the established garden plot can’t be contained by a tent.
Good luck with the fall crops, and why not try some rabbit poop?