Farm News

Our dog, Korrie, is a better hunter than our cats.  She loves roaming free and bringing home small rodents. 

Yesterday it was an animal with the body the size of a softball!  So nasty.  I got close enough as I dared to see what it was.  I decided it was a hedgehog.

I asked the boys to get a shovel and clean it up but when they went out there....he wasn't dead!!! 

He was hurt enough that he couldn't get away but he was still alive enough to be moving. 
Not for long.  4 boys and several darts from their dart guns later, and the hedgehog was finished.  Turns out it was a rat.  Rat, hedgehog, whatever.

But since they were already out there, Josh decided to take care of some other farm chores.  His dad has been wanting him to put down 2 crippled chickens for awhile now.  The chickens are having a hard time getting to food and water and we didn't want them to die of thirst or be picked on by the others. 

I knew this wasn't something he wanted to do but I had NO IDEA.  He brings the chickens out into the yard and loads his pellet gun.  Nate was helping.  One of his jobs was to hold an extra pellet in case Josh missed and didn't kill them the first time and he could re-load quickly. 

Remember that time we thought we were the Ingalls family and could kill our own chickens and have fried chicken for supper?  Well this turned out to be almost as terrible as that day.  Kids were crying, Nate was sobbing, they were all asking me about where chickens go when they die.

There was nothing to do but hug and wipe tears and go to the library.  The library heals many hurts. 

Well today I got a call from Mr. Hardin saying he could come out and look at the bees.  Remember that nifty new bee suit I got?  Well today I got to put it into service.  The kids were suiting up while Mr. H and I were talking and Zekey was pulling on his boots. 

All of a sudden....SQUEEL SCREECH SCREAM!!!   Every kid was freaking out!!  Zekey is hopping on one foot.  His boot falls off and out zips a mouse a MOUSE!!!  In his boot!  That had his foot in it!! I would've died right then and there. 

The mouse runs straight at Nate who gave him a swift kick into the yard where Korrie pounced.  She kept him contained long enough for Nate to grab his BB gun. 

No more mouse. 

Bees are looking good.  One hive is strong and has made a lot of progress since I last checked.  They have HONEY!  And maybe, just maybe, I won't be feeding them.  No sign of beetles.  All is pretty. 

We opened the other hive to see 8-10 beetles running around.  I've never seen this many!  We killed as many as we could with our hive tools.  There is a nice brood pattern but not as many bees.  Not much honey at all.  They are still strong enough to drive the beetles to the top but things could be better.  Part of the problem is that their once sunny spot is now fairly shaded.  Tomorrow night, after dark, we will move them to a sunnier spot.  Hive beetles hate sun.  Bees love sun. 

They still have some time to work before the cold weather, so I'm hopeful we will see even more progress next time.