Alexis had visited our farm with her family earlier this summer to pick flowers, and we were more than happy to have her back to volunteer some time behind the scenes at the farm.
Chris made no hesitation to put some free labor to use! Here are some pictures from the days events (pictures thanks to Steve, her dad)
First duty of the day is- collecting eggs from the nesting boxes.
Cleaning the eggs and packing them into the containers for the customers. This process can take a while since it requires a gentle touch!
Next task is feeding the girls some breakfast, our flock of New Hampshire Reds and Black Australorps are bottomless pits. Besides the fresh grass and bugs, throwing some scratch feed around their pasture keeps them entertained and busy for the day.
Hanging out with the girls, all the happy hens in their eggmobile. Every kid should have a pet chicken!One of the life science projects the class has been learning about is composting, something we do alot of here on the farm. Fall is a great time for any gardener to start composting because there is so much to work with, tons of leaves and fading flowers. First step is gathering spent flowers for the compost heap...best to alternate a layer of fresh - green (nitrogen) and dried -brown (carbon) to create the best ratio for composting.
Pulling the dried plants back to the compost heap.
Composting is a process that takes months but luckily we did have a pile that had been composting all summer. Here is Chris scooping out some final compost product from our turning compost bin. Dark and fluffy, gardeners refer to finished compost as "Black gold" - our special blend developed from a lovely mix of chicken poop, egg shells, wood shavings, kitchen scraps, coffee grounds, leaves, and grass clippings. Alexis is going to take some home to experiment with how beans grow diffently in compost, regular soil and mixtures of the two.
Next on the agenda was to feed the bees. Depending on the season, we mix a different ratio of sugar:water mix to mimic what the bees need depending on what activities they are preforming in the hive.
Once that sugar was all desolved, she got suited up
Preparing for meeting the hive.
Chris smoking the bees. They tend to be alittle more aggressive when they have a stash of honey to protect, and this time of year they definetly do! The hive weighs about 40lbs since all the combs are full of capped honey. A supply they created from working so hard on pollinating our flowers and veggie plants all summer. The smoke helps distract them so we can enter the hive. When bees smell fire, their instinct is to stick closer to the hive and use their wings to cool off the hive. When working with a colony full of honey, the smoker allows the beekeeper to preform their duties without having the bees swarming all around trying to defend their goodies.
Chris explaining how to fill the feeder and pointing out how having these floating wood pieces inside prevents the bees from drowning in the syrup.
Carefully pouring in the bee food into the feeder -
Future beekeeper having fun plus the bees are fed for the next month or two! Alexis even got to sample some honeycomb fresh from the hive! Yumm...
Pulling the dried plants back to the compost heap.
Composting is a process that takes months but luckily we did have a pile that had been composting all summer. Here is Chris scooping out some final compost product from our turning compost bin. Dark and fluffy, gardeners refer to finished compost as "Black gold" - our special blend developed from a lovely mix of chicken poop, egg shells, wood shavings, kitchen scraps, coffee grounds, leaves, and grass clippings. Alexis is going to take some home to experiment with how beans grow diffently in compost, regular soil and mixtures of the two.
Next on the agenda was to feed the bees. Depending on the season, we mix a different ratio of sugar:water mix to mimic what the bees need depending on what activities they are preforming in the hive.
Mixing up the sugar/water solution - The fall ratio calls for 1lb of sugar : 1cup of water. Very thick syrup so they have supplemental food for the winter.
Pretty heavy, but she found a way to mix it!
Once that sugar was all desolved, she got suited up
Preparing for meeting the hive.
Chris smoking the bees. They tend to be alittle more aggressive when they have a stash of honey to protect, and this time of year they definetly do! The hive weighs about 40lbs since all the combs are full of capped honey. A supply they created from working so hard on pollinating our flowers and veggie plants all summer. The smoke helps distract them so we can enter the hive. When bees smell fire, their instinct is to stick closer to the hive and use their wings to cool off the hive. When working with a colony full of honey, the smoker allows the beekeeper to preform their duties without having the bees swarming all around trying to defend their goodies.
Chris explaining how to fill the feeder and pointing out how having these floating wood pieces inside prevents the bees from drowning in the syrup.
Carefully pouring in the bee food into the feeder - 
Future beekeeper having fun plus the bees are fed for the next month or two! Alexis even got to sample some honeycomb fresh from the hive! Yumm...
She is definitely earning her hours, and looks like she's having a blast while doing it! So nice of you guys to take her under your wing and show her the "real stuff"! In a few years she'll want a job working for you :)
ReplyDeleteWow, what a great program and oh how much she learned and yes, I think she had too much fun doing it. Learning can be a ton of fun!
ReplyDelete