Sunday, May 23, 2010

It was another really busy week. Tuesday morning Bug and I made the trip to the hatchery to pick up our first batch of chicks. I wanted to get there early in order to see Doug's Aunt Sanna before she went home for the day. She works the overnight shift but is thinking she might retire next year when she turns 85. We got there in time so got a tour of what goes on behind the scenes in a hatchery. Very interesting. Then home to get the chicks out of the boxes and

fed and watered. So far we haven't lost any, which is very unusual.

The two queen bees I ordered were shipped on Monday so I needed to go through both hives and determine where the existing queen is so I would know which box was to be the divide. I needed to either see eggs or the queen to be sure. I was ecstatic when I found the queen in the bottom box of the first hive. That gave me confidence that I COULD do this without help. The second hive I did not see the queen but found eggs also in the bottom box. The Post Office called Wednesday a.m. to tell me the queens were there. I made the divides Wednesday night after work. I'll wait until Wednesday or Thursday of this week to see if the queen has been accepted in each of the hives.

The 150 spruce trees that Doug ordered a couple weeks ago from a company out of Michigan arrived Wednesday also. Since the Emerald Ash Borer is headed our way and most of the trees in our grove are ash, he got the idea we should plan for the future in case we will need to replace the grove. Plant some 18-24" trees now in a tree nursery at a cost of $1 each instead of $20+ each for larger trees in a few years. The quality of the trees was much better than either one of us expected. Doug planted them Friday night and part of Saturday.

Friday morning 1/3 of the pumpkin field got planted with assistance of two hardworking friends. Saturday a.m. the other 2/3rds was planted by myself, three young helpers who dropped the seeds, and three high school young men who covered the hills. We started at 9:30 and were finished by 12:15 p.m. By the time I got back from the field, Doug had finished planting the trees.

Bug's coming for the day tomorrow. We will go to the greenhouse to get flowers to complete our planters as well as tomato and vegetable plants for the garden.