Beekeeping, Gardening and Quilting in Eastern Wake County, North Carolina









Wednesday, September 26, 2018

The Neighborhood



I got three little chicks back in July - a Bielefelder for Vivian, a Silver Laced Orpington for Knox, and a Salmon Favorelle for Tiny.  They live in the big house now with the twins but still working on the pecking order.  They're now teenagers and have decided to broaden their horizons and have started sitting on the deck.  Little Kitty, bless her heart, has to put up with the new kids on the block and also the two older (not laying) hens and Lily.  They're cute and funny little things and hopefully I'll be getting some eggs in the near future.

Sunday, September 23, 2018

Well, it's been a day or two . . .

Yep, it's been awhile and I have no excuse except this is time consuming and I've been piddling around a lot lately.  So, that said, here's some of what I've been doing - went across the pond - yep, a trip to England - 11 (yes, eleven) days away from home.  I went with a group on a garden tour with the J.C. Raulston Arboretum and it was wonderful.  Every day was another garden that was better than the one before - big, little, in between sizes, public and private gardens.  But I was glad to get back to the flat land of eastern North Carolina.  That's the longest I've ever been gone from home. And yes I took lots of photos but who wants to look at somebody else's trip photos - not me!
But I did see bees and beehives and there were bees in the walls of this chapel which is still used for services.  It was lovely.

1700's Chapel

Bees in the wall of the Chapel

Trip to Bald Head Island with the grandkids which is always great.  I love that place - even with bad weather it's a great place to visit.  Lots of trips to the river.
Trying to keep ahead of grass and weeds and I just gave up in the garden.
Beeyard - September 23, 2018
So today I checked the bees.  I didn't take any honey this summer.  Just not enough and I wanted to be sure the bees would have enough for the winter.  I have started feeding again - front feeders on two hives and inside feeders on two.  They don't have enough honey to last the winter and I'll just keep feeding.  Hurricane Florence dropped a lot of rain here and this has been a weird weather year. The Farmer's Almanac is calling for a mild winter but that is neither a good or bad situation.  If they don't have enough honey stored in the hive, they'll starve cold weather or not.