What did you do in the garden today?

[karenerwin]

@Sueby here is a picture of the youngest meat chicks. Ignorethe green tint. I was taking the picture after dark and was using my flashlight to get more light on them. I picked them up from Cackle Hatchery as 1 day olds the last week in April ( the 28th).

 

[pennyJo1960]

I have 2 hatched so far 3 more pipped 10 more next day or so

 

[TropicalBabies]

I like your brooder mine is plastic tub have a real short one for bran new then the lower is till they have feathers I use hardware cloth as tops and tents with hyeating pads can shot off Auto shut off on them View attachment 2150596View attachment 2150596

I'm too embarrassed to show and tell my old one. All scrap wood when we did not have much on hand so it is ugly but worked great. Did the trick for years but I would hate to sell chicks out of it.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Never had one growing up then did not have birds again till we retired here

 

[TropicalBabies]

DONE!!!! and just about ready for my new babies.... I hope I get a good hatch Wouldn't it be funny if i only got 1 or 2 out of 30...

I got the coops cleaned out and reorganized and freshened up the run. After moving stuff and exposing bugs that ran under the piles of leaves, the leaves have suddenly become popular. The run looks beautiful, like fall and that is a good feeling- for me lol, sorry if I made some gardeners cringe.
I got most everything on my list done or just forgot I was going to do it... one of the only benefits to getting older, that and being nuts...

 

[NewBoots]

Whelp the sun did come out so I had to go be useful. Pretty much cleared out the greenhouse except for some assorted flower seedlings. Got the supports up for the tomato beds and planted a lot of the tomatoes and basil.

Tomato blossoms!

Mixed raised bed

Jerusalem artichokes, they'll look like sunflowers later in the season

Deck area as it is now

Red clover bed for the rabbits and chickens

And assorted plants we brought from our last place

The vine maple and campanula are both native plants. The pitcher plant isn't but it and other carnivorous plants are our hobby.

 

[TropicalBabies]

Whelp the sun did come out so I had to go be useful. Pretty much cleared out the greenhouse except for some assorted flower seedlings. Got the supports up for the tomato beds and planted a lot of the tomatoes and basil.View attachment 2151363View attachment 2151364


Tomato blossoms!

View attachment 2151368

Mixed raised bedView attachment 2151379
View attachment 2151380View attachment 2151381

Jerusalem artichokes, they'll look like sunflowers later in the seasonView attachment 2151382

Deck area as it is nowView attachment 2151384
View attachment 2151386


Red clover bed for the rabbits and chickensView attachment 2151387


And assorted plants we brought from our last placeView attachment 2151389
View attachment 2151390
View attachment 2151391


The vine maple and campanula are both native plants. The pitcher plant isn't but it and other carnivorous plants are our hobby.

Absolutely gorgeous!!!! You have done a fabulous job!!!

 

[karenerwin]

I cleaned out the big coop today, fired up the incubator in case I need to toss any eggs in it ( if the broody hatches some and decides to abandon the rest).
Moved more logs into the raised bed. Tossed in all the shavings from the coop clean out as well as a bunch of leaves. Started moving the compost over to the raised bed from the compost area. Got 2 wagon loads done but then it started getting dark. I still have about 2 more to go.
This morning it looked like there were a few raider bees trying to get in my hive. I saw a couple of my bees attacking a couple other bees. There were about 15 or so dead bees outside the hive on the grass. I also watched a bird swoop down and snatch up 2 fighting bees in flight! So much was going on!!
Opened the bee hive today to take a look. Still haven't found the queen but I think that is user error. The frame feeder was completely empty and they had drawn out a lot of comb on the side of it. My plan was to take it out today and replace it with frames and wax (which I did).But I am wondering if I should have left it and refilled it.
I am not happy with how the brood pattern is. It seems very random to me. I only looked at 1 frame, the others that I took out had comb on the top or the bottom or just had a few bees crawling around on them. When I went to remove the top brood box 2 frames from the bottom brood box were stuck to frames in the top box!! 1 frame fell off when I was moving it.
I was a bit perplexed as to what to do. I replaced the top box and then used the hive tool to separate them. ( That worked).
Then I had 3 frames hanging on the side frame holder and tried to scrape off the comb they were building on the top. That caused the frames to move diagonally and another frame fell.
The bees were very patient with my bumbling efforts.
I've messaged my mentor to see when she can come over and open the hive with me so we can go through the whole thing and find the queen. Plus she can give me her thoughts about the brood pattern. I'll post a picture from my phone.
They have plenty of wax to draw out but it seems like they are building comb on the top and bottoms of the frames instead.
I also forgot to look to see if there was larvae in the holes. Oh, and my smoker went out. And, I had a bee INSIDE my bee hat TWICE!! I can't believe I didn't get stung.
To top the day off, I got a call from the care center where my Mom is. They were informing me that there are 4 positive covid cases in her hallway, so they are going to test everyone in that hallway to be sure. Mom isn't doing well ( still from when she had that surgery months ago!). She was around 135 lbs then and is now down to about 97 lbs. The house doctor isn't sure if she is entering her "end of life" stages or what.
Trying to potty train 2 puppies is very hard. We have only had 1 accident free day ( and it wasn't today ).

 

[karenerwin]

This is the comb they drew out on the side of the frame feeder.

The frame on the ground will be the same frame I show the pattern on in the next picture. Notice the frame hanging behind this one? Nothing drawn out on it except at the bottom. It looks like it joins the frame on the ground, but it doesn’t.

I think this looks too spread out and random. Plus I’m surprised that more of the frame isn’t covered.

Dead bees on the ground in front of the hive.

This bird likes to eat bees. I hope it doesn’t eat too many!!

I have no idea what this orange substance is but I noticed it when I was closing up the hive. It wasn’t there before I opened the hive.

 

[AllenK RGV]

So I was recently reminded I have been MIA on this thread. It is summer in Texas so nothing grows. My grass crunches under foot like frozen stuff as well. Apparently you can still grow irrigated cotton.

We got the artichokes planted way to late to save more than half.