Talkin' 'bout life with the Head Farmer, our 5 kiddos and our cows, chickens, dogs, ducks, geese, and bees. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/milkmaidmama/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Sun, 12 Apr 2009 15:46:00 -0500 Sun, 12 Apr 2009 15:46:00 -0500 <p><font size="3">What a rainy day we are having today!&nbsp; I started my day this morning at 5am with our Little Farmer.&nbsp; He's an early riser.&nbsp; <img alt="" src="/include/fckeditor/editor/images/smiley/msn/cry_smile.gif" />&nbsp; It would be nice if he slept later, but at least he sleeps!!&nbsp; Anyway, after everyone was up and running I went out to seperate calves and check up on my bees.&nbsp; We separate our 2 little heifers&nbsp;from their mamas in the morning so we can milk their mams in the evening... if we didn't, we wouldn't get any milk.&nbsp; And about my bees.... well, yesterday was a nice warm day and guess what happened.&nbsp; The bees swarmed.&nbsp; They got themselves a new queen and decided to leave the hive so we had to get out there and catch them before they left the farm.&nbsp;&nbsp; It was pretty exciting and a little scary... bees were everywhere!!!&nbsp; <img alt="" src="/include/fckeditor/editor/images/smiley/msn/whatchutalkingabout_smile.gif" />&nbsp;&nbsp; Since I'm still a baby beekeeper I was a little frazzled and not well prepared... thanks to the appearance of one Little Farmer.&nbsp; Thankfully, I have some bee keeping friends and they came over and helped me out.&nbsp; I'll be getting 2 new hives this Thursday, one to put the new colony in and one to spare!!&nbsp; I was able to get a queen bee larvae to show the girls...they thought it was gross.&nbsp; They also thought it was sad that when the new queen hatches she goes around and kills all the other queen bee babies.&nbsp; I was also able to show them the difference in the worker bee and drone bee incubation cells.&nbsp; The worker bees are females and the smallest...their cells are flat.&nbsp; The drone bees are the males...a bit bigger than the workers and thier cells have rounded tops.&nbsp; The queen bee is the biggest and her&nbsp;cell looks like a peanut...really it does... very cool.&nbsp;&nbsp; Yesterday was very busy... today is very not.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </font></p> <p><font size="3"></font></p> <p><font size="3">Since the Little Farmer came along life has been pretty caotic.&nbsp; He came nice and peaceful at first.&nbsp; Then at about 2 weeks the crying started.&nbsp; We figured he had colic so we tried a lot of different things.&nbsp; Nothing seemed to work until we took him to the chiropractor.&nbsp; He is doing much better now, but I think it wasn't as much the adjustments (although I'm sure they helped) as it was that I just figured out that this poor little fellow just wasn't getting enough sleep.&nbsp; He was taking little cat naps all day long, but never really sleeping.&nbsp; We would bring his bed downstairs and let him sleep there, but 4 girls just make too much noise.&nbsp; Now that I have him&nbsp;more on a routine and keep his bed upstairs (his bed is a bassinet, by the way) he sleeps much better/longer at a time and he's happier when he's awake.&nbsp; Which, by the way, I hear him now.&nbsp; </font></p> <p><font size="3">I hope your day is a good one!!</font></p> <p><font size="3">The Milkmaid<img alt="" src="/include/fckeditor/editor/images/smiley/msn/heart.gif" /></font></p> http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/milkmaidmama/678495/ Sun, 12 Apr 2009 15:46:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/milkmaidmama/678495/