The return of warmer weather has been a welcome respite from the cold temperatures of winter. It’s been wonderful to go out and work around the farm in shorts and t-shirt again. It’s looking more and more like the worst of winter is finally behind us.
Our animals all seem to be enjoying the warmer weather, too. Our bees have started to make a reappearance, buzzing around outside the hive looking for sources of pollen. I’m very happy to see they survived the winter, since this is the first time with our new hive in cold weather. We opted to leave the hive with both brood boxes full of honey, and that seems to have been enough to get them through. In a few weeks, I’ll remove the entrance reducer and add the honey supers back to the hive.
The chickens are also doing well. We lost a few over the winter; chalk it up to inexperience on our part. But we still have nearly 20 birds, and they have been happily wandering around the property pecking about for food. We had our first egg collection yesterday when I happened upon a clutch tucked away in some hay bails. I floated the lot of them and pronounced them safe to eat. It’s very nice to have our own eggs again. Rest assured I’ll now be watching the chickens closely to see if they continue to lay their eggs in out-of-the-way places.
It’s already shaping up to be a pretty good year, so we’ll see what else the warm weather brings us.