Ribh's D'Coopage

[Aussie-Chookmum]

I am posting this on your thread @Ribh because i think this suits your sense of humor. If you have not seen this hen on the picture of the week thread you have to check it out.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...information-submissions.1345170/post-22514156

All I keep picturing is the Monty Python skit, this parrot is dead.

She looks like a stuffed bird!

 

[Ribh]

"Tactile! That's the word, thanks Ribh.
When I was trying to think how to describe it it just started sounding creepy!"

Oh yes. "Tactile" is a much better word than "fondle". Especially when talking about someone else's lamps!

Oh, Gosh! My mind went all sorts of places it probably shouldn't have.

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

This is our 1st hive.
It is incredibly active & as you can see the bees have managed a good resin barrier @ their entrance. This acts as a predator deterrent & has more than doubled in size since the hive arrived.

View attachment 2119635

I spent quite a bit of time watching the bees yesterday because flecks of bright red resin are now being added. I had plenty of bees landing on me & crawling over my hands. One even dropped a bit of resin on me! Maybe she thought I needed protecting...?

In contrast the new hive has been very quiet & subdued.
It has come from a colder region of Queensland & it seems the bees had already started to slow down for winter.

Plus someone seems to have cleaned up the entrance for shipping.
Most of the activity I've seen has been in the tunnel so I figure the bees are doing some repair work after shipping & getting their defense system back up round the entrance. First things first. They are having to start from scratch so I will be interested to see how long this process takes.
View attachment 2119665

Unfortunately for them our weather suddenly decided it was winter. The wind has swung round to the west ~ where all our really bitter weather originates. The lad has been home for 3 days straight as his pots are in open water & it's way too rough for the size of his boat. The girls have been getting a small handful of corn before bed to help them with the sudden drop in temperature & our fire has been lit.
The lounge complex & warm fire has been greatly appreciated by the lad. ​

Bees are so interesting. I'd be very interested in any bee updates too Ribh.

Will you get someone to film when it is time to separate the hive or collect honey?

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

I have a very happy & content Marlow.

View attachment 2119831​

What a sweet, cuddly floof! And such a lovely rug...

 

[Ribh]

Bees are so interesting. I'd be very interested in any bee updates too Ribh.

Will you get someone to film when it is time to separate the hive or collect honey?

I may be able to when we do honey.We won't get anything like the amount Shad gets from honeybees.

The hive thing I expect will actually be rather dull to watch as there won't be much to see. An induction [not sure I've got the spelling right] involves hooking up 2 hives with a length of pipe & hoping the bees'll start using the new hive. I think we are also going to do a *bait* hive ~ which is an empty hive with propolis smeared round to encourage the bees to use it. I'll take pics when we actually get round to doing something. Just now we're a little swamped with other things. I think they're interesting too Shad should be able to point out important differences between the 2 species.

 

[Ribh]

What a sweet, cuddly floof! And such a lovely rug...

I thought the colours were lovely! That one is going to a friend in Townsville. Marlow is a snugglebuggle. He tends to hog my chair.

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

I may be able to when we do honey.We won't get anything like the amount Shad gets from honeybees.

The hive thing I expect will actually be rather dull to watch as there won't be much to see. An induction [not sure I've got the spelling right] involves hooking up 2 hives with a length of pipe & hoping the bees'll start using the new hive. I think we are also going to do a *bait* hive ~ which is an empty hive with propolis smeared round to encourage the bees to use it. I'll take pics when we actually get round to doing something. Just now we're a little swamped with other things. I think they're interesting too Shad should be able to point out important differences between the 2 species.

I see.

I thought you might separate them the way they demonstrated on the sugarbag website.

https://sugarbag.net/resources

 

[Ribh]

I see.

I thought you might separate them the way they demonstrated on the sugarbag website.

https://sugarbag.net/resources

That's a more intrusive way of doing it. We're hoping for a nice non invasive approach. Good heavens ! I'm sounding like a tree hugging snowflake! Basically I said I didn't want any bees killed in this production & The man said, ok, so this is how we'll do it. I have no idea. I guess we're about to find out.

 

[Kholbert]

These are my present girls:Nugget ~ Head Honcho

View attachment 1693405
Sodapop ~ always on the up & up..
View attachment 1693409
Namaste ~ named by YD's choir mistress...

View attachment 1693407

View attachment 1693411 Hepzibah ~ which means my delight is in her ~ very suitable.

The black and white chickens, are they female? And what breed. I got one from my daughter's class and it looks just like that. Comb and waffles. So I thought it was a male. But now I am wondering if it might be a female as well.

 

[Ribh]

The black and white chickens, are they female? And what breed. I got one from my daughter's class and it looks just like that. Comb and waffles. So I thought it was a male. But now I am wondering if it might be a female as well.

These are female Plymouth Barred Rocks. Males generally look darker as the barring is narrower. By maturity a rooster will have a much larger comb & wattles & he will have developed the long sickle tail feathers. These are a sex link bird ~ meaning you can sex the chicks. The males have a large white dot on the head. Hope that helps.