| General Update |
| Written by Gordon Cunningham | |
| Sunday, 08 July 2007 | |
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Well, it's way past time to update you on the happens much here. Joyce is updating her site, too, putting up pics and writing about some of the stuff she's been through here, so check her site out, too: Lots has been happening! The bees are doing quite well (I think) for the first hive we've ever had. Since the initial hiving into a medium hive body in April, we've added two more medium hive bodies as the hive grew. They have drawn out the comb and are capping off the honey in the top. I've ordered more equipment to be able to take advantage of the coming flows like goldenrod and late summer/autumn blooms around here. We should get some honey this year, though I've been told I won't by many beekeepers. The hive is very strong, probably because we started early and they grew steadily. We've also had no serious setbacks. As I write this, the bees are really flying and collecting today! Fingers crossed! Bee patient - the bee video file above is pretty large and may take a minute to download. The chickens have grown faster than the weeds. We have 3 golden comets and 3 black giants. We got them as day-old chicks from the local Paris Farmers Union store in mid-May. The giants came in a few days later due to an ordering mix-up, so they are a bit behind the comets, but they are doing well, too. The coop and run is mostly done, but we do want to put a new roof on it, and later finish insulating it for winter. Pics are in the gallery. For you home automation (HA) enthusiasts, we have the coop wired for some automation. The lights go on in the evening to coax the chickens in for the day, and we have a 250 watt heat lamp that kicks on if the outside temps go below 60 degrees F or so. We also have a wireless camera out there, and just got our incoming Internet connections working at the house, so maybe in the coming weeks we'll get the camera online for viewing. Oh, the link to the HA stuff at the house is http://gord.no-ip.biz:8084/ . For the HA login, use "guest" and password is "guest" (no quotes). |
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| Last Updated ( Friday, 17 August 2007 ) |