The birds and the bees

We may only have birds and bees as our farm animals, but it feels like we have a lot going on with them this year. We checked on the bees a couple weeks ago. I still get pretty nervous when we open the hive and see thousands of them going about their business.

They are pretty calm though, mostly, especially after we drug them with the smoker. Mike pulled out each frame one by one to see whether the comb was being filled with larvae or honey. We also checked for the queen, because the hive can't function properly if she is dead. We did manage to pick her out of the crowd. The bees seem healthy and productive, but we're still a long way from getting to harvest honey for ourselves. 

The ducklings are still cute and growing up fast. They stick together all the time and like to go swimming in a shallow bowl of water we put out for them. They're pretty disgusting, though. Unlike chickens, their poo is the consistency of mud and smells like a stagnant pond. Paired with lots of rain we've had lately, it made the pen ankle-deep in stinky brown muck. A layer of straw helped the situation a lot, fortunately.

Their chick sibling died a couple weeks ago, apparently squashed in a scuffle inside the coop. But we did just get four new mail-order chicks this spring to help boost our flock size. They're currently growing up a bit in a bin in the garage, just like our first batch of chicks did last year.

Thinking about the eight chicks we were raising this time last year is a bit sad. We were so excited to name them and get to know them, and now only three are still alive, thanks to hawks, coyotes, and a random accident. I never imagined there'd be so much death, considering we aren't raising birds for meat! We've even lost our guinea fowl, although we aren't sure if he's dead. We got him a female companion, Mrs. Guinea, and the first time we let them out of the pen to enjoy a nice afternoon, they flew away. He always stayed close to home with the chickens when he was a single fella, so that hussy must have convinced him to run off. Hopefully they're having a nice honeymoon off in the woods somewhere (but in reality, a predator will likely get them before the month is out). 

Anyway, with our somewhat more practical and jaded mindsets this year, we haven't spent as much time cooing over the chicks or discussing names. But I hope they'll be long-lived residents of our homestead.