Stella's Social Club

[drumstick diva]

Looks like she had a very good start Mike - must be in her blood. Did you get to see your friends at the dog show?

 

[drumstick diva]

PS I loved that movie "Babe," with the sheep herding pig and always wondered what "away to me," meant - thanks for the explanation.

 

[mlm Mike]

Looks like she had a very good start Mike - must be in her blood. Did you get to see your friends at the dog show?

She did, I'm taking her next Saturday for a lesson, then we'll be done until next year. I did get to see some friends, covered my wife's ears, and discussed a potential breeding. (Probably can't happen, but we'll see).

PS I loved that movie "Babe," with the sheep herding pig and always wondered what "away to me," meant - thanks for the explanation.

That was a fun movie. Herding commands are given in a Scottish accent (I'm joking, but you really can't help doing it).
The herding commands have changed the way I train basic commands, I have to explain it to obedience trainers. The big one is, I use Here instead of Come, and have to explain herding uses Come-Bye to clockwise flank, so I use here for the dog to straight line it to me.

 

[1muttsfan]

I hope you are going somewhere fun.



'Nuff said.


We were working on step one. Learning if she has stronger drover or gathering instinct, if she prefers away to me (counter clockwise) or come bye (clockwise).

So dogs are left and right handed too - interesting.

My favorite command is "That'll do", as you said with a Scottish accent.

 

[mlm Mike]

1muttsfan, that place would work rather nicely.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Your tree and decorations are lovely Rinda! As usual, the kid is cute too!

You and Clover look good out there Mike! Looks like she is getting them to run around you. Not sure if that was intentional or not.

Today I made persimmon cookies with brandied raisins and a caramel brandy pecan topping. I should be arrested.

Oh my, these sound delicious!

Do you add food throughout the winter months or do bees eventually hibernate?

Everyone handles their hives differently. I give mine pollen patties through the winter just to make sure they have everything they need when they are not foraging. Bees eat honey/sugar, but need pollen to raise brood. They don't raise much brood in winter, but when they start the spring buildup, they need a lot of it. My small hive is low on stores, so I'm making sure they have food also. Once it gets cold, you can't feed sugar syrup, it chills the bees and creates moisture in the hive. Just like chickens, condensation in the hive is bad - they need good ventilation.

That was a fun movie. Herding commands are given in a Scottish accent (I'm joking, but you really can't help doing it).
The herding commands have changed the way I train basic commands, I have to explain it to obedience trainers. The big one is, I use Here instead of Come, and have to explain herding uses Come-Bye to clockwise flank, so I use here for the dog to straight line it to me.

You certainly don't want to confuse the dog.

1muttsfan, that place would work rather nicely.

Ditto!

 

[lonnyandrinda]

Bees do not hibernate. They "cluster." This means they ball up, and vibrate to keep warm. The bees in the center are toasty warm around any remaining brood (the queen still lays in the winter, just not much), and can eat stored honey as needed, and as the bees on the outside get cold they are pulled in to the center to warm up and eat as well. They are very much awake and alive. If you opened the hive they WOULD come after you. And the hive would probably die because they could not cluster back up before they got too chilled.

Because they don't hibernate, they can starve to death in the winter. If it gets above 40 degrees, they can move to a different spot in the box where there is more food. But if it stays below that for an extended period of time (say 3 or 4 weeks), then they are stranded where they are in the hive and will die. You can tell in the spring if a hive starved to death, all the bees are head first into the cells, trying to lick the very last molecules of honey, in a roughly semi-circle area. It's very sad to find that.

 

[mlm Mike]

Bees do not hibernate. They "cluster." This means they ball up, and vibrate to keep warm. The bees in the center are toasty warm around any remaining brood (the queen still lays in the winter, just not much), and can eat stored honey as needed, and as the bees on the outside get cold they are pulled in to the center to warm up and eat as well. They are very much awake and alive. If you opened the hive they WOULD come after you. And the hive would probably die because they could not cluster back up before they got too chilled.

Because they don't hibernate, they can starve to death in the winter. If it gets above 40 degrees, they can move to a different spot in the box where there is more food. But if it stays below that for an extended period of time (say 3 or 4 weeks), then they are stranded where they are in the hive and will die. You can tell in the spring if a hive starved to death, all the bees are head first into the cells, trying to lick the very last molecules of honey, in a roughly semi-circle area. It's very sad to find that.

Very interesting.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Thanks Rinda, I forgot to mention that they don't hibernate.

 

[The Sheriff]

Well, I just get confused by all the bee raising stuff, so that's out for me! And, I can't get a sheep herding dog because I would take so long trying to remember the commands that the dog would be confused. So, I'll just keep baking cookies and herding Tucker across the kitchen on a leash. It's still a good life.