To Bee or Not to Bee…

We attended an event on Saturday with our local beekeeping club, where a package of bees was installed into a hive, a hive was split, and we petted alpacas and admired livestock guardian dogs 🙂

We didn’t know they were going to auction off the package of bees, but they did – which meant we had to bid on them (our nucs won’t be ready until late April… and we are impatient.)  We won.

And suddenly, we were beekeepers!  It’s been very cold this week, so we haven’t seen a whole lot of activity (although our Rapid Feeder does allow us to see the bees as they are eating, so we knew they were eating a TON.)

This afternoon, things warmed up to the mid-60’s and we suddenly had hundreds of bees taking orientation flights.  VERY COOL!  Scott and I could sit and watch the bees all day – if we didn’t have anything else to do around here!  We’ve started a Facebook page, which you can find under “Honeybelle Hill Homestead“.

Meanwhile, we have some Basque Hen eggs that should hatch on Sunday.  They went into lockdown last night.

This breed is totally new to us (and fairly new to the US, actually.)  A dual-purpose heritage breed imported from Spain, Basque Hens are also known as Euskal Oiloa.  We are still on a quest for the perfect dual-purpose chicken for homesteading.  I still have an interest in crossing Dorkings to create a meat bird, but Dorking hens are SO broody, they make things difficult 😉

Until next time!