Category Archives: Bees

Catching Up

Bees, Birds, garden, Lavender, Marshmallow, Nature, Pollinators, Prayer Garrden, Primrose, Reflections, Roses, The Farm, , , ,

Time is getting away from me. It is a busy time of year and while I have been documenting some of what is happing with pictures, I haven’t made time to post it. This post starts the week of June 15

Thursday Observations

Prior to last year we had pruned back our grape vines dramatically. As a result, they produced few grapes last year and the ones they did make were eaten by birds or chickens before they ripened.

This year they are making grapes so I’m hoping for a decent harvest.

In my last post I showed you the large wild rose bushes in bloom. The second variety of wild roses bloomed in June as well. They are a low growing bush with small pink blossoms and a lovely fragrance.

The same oak tree that supports the white, climbing rose (above) that I showed in my last post has that small pink rose bush growing at its base.

Thursday was windy. You can’t see the wind but you can see the effects.

Friday Chores

On Friday morning my to-do list including cutting the chives since their flowers had faded and they were threatening to drop their seeds. My chive patch is as big as I want it to be so cutting them back before they reseeded was necessary to prevent a total chive invasion.

That short green patch in the front is where the chives were.

I’m glad I didn’t encounter this guy while I was cutting the chives. I don’t mind snakes but don’t like coming across them where I am working.

Cutting garlic scapes was my other chore that morning. If you don’t know what scapes are click here to learn more.

Saturday Efforts

On Saturday my husband spent many hours weed whipping around the pond. Oh, how I appreciate his hard work!

Colors of Summer

Lavender beginning to blossom.

Wildflowers

Rare Photos

It is not unusual to see raptors flying around our area, but it is rare that I capture a photo of one.

It wasn’t close enough for me to identify what type of bird this was,

but when I did some online reading, I discovered this was likely a turkey vulture. The main reason I say that is because it wasn’t alone. As it soared and circled above our pond it was joined by a second and then a third. Eventually there were seven of them circling overhead. Vultures commonly hunt in groups unlike hawks and eagles who more often hunt solo.

Bees

My husband captured another swarm of bees bringing us up to four hives.

A few days later the hive swarmed again.

The swarm was too heavy for the branch they landed on. Then ended up relocating. We didn’t have another hive ready so we decided this swarm would add to the wild bee population. My husband did set up another hive so that we are ready in case there is another swarm.

After The Heatwave

We have had some deer visiting. They enjoyed some hosta salad.

The prayer garden is ever changing. These pictures are from last week – following a week of intense heat.

The white in the foreground are phlox, the yellow is tickseed, the purple is, of course, lavender and the peach color are Asiatic lilies.

The colors this year are very vibrant.

Roses

Tickseed

Lavender

Asiatic lilies

Creeping thyme in the foreground is a favorite of bees and other pollinators.

Some primroses were still blossoming last week as well.

Marshmallow plants

Marshmallow blossoms

The garden seemed to enjoy the heat wave more than we did.

My husband watered as needed.

And everything is growing in leaps and bounds.

Above is the patch of buckwheat we planted. It’s amazing to see how many pollinators forage this patch. My husband also discovered that the chickens like buckwheat, so he cuts a handful or two each day and gives it to the chickens.

Look What’s Growing in Our Apple Tree

There are some apples on the tree as well, but they weren’t as interesting as these three baby robins.

Thanks for visiting.

The Week in Pictures-Bees and Blooms

Asaparagus, Bees, Chives, Lilacs, Nature, Oregano, Reflections

Another Swarm

Early last week the bees looked like they were going to swarm again. They eventually settled down but we figured we should keep an eye on them for the next few days.

Thursday morning my husband said they were overly active and figured that was the day they were going to swarm. He brought out another hive to set up in case he could capture another swarm

Thursday afternoon he discovered the swarm in the nearby spruce tree again. He got the hive set up.

He then put on his protective gear and got his bucket ready.

Holding the bucket under the branch where the swarm had landed, he shook the branch causing much of the swarm to fall into the bucket. He put the lid on the bucket as he carried it to the hive.

He dumped the bees into the hive and put the top on the hive. He then returned to the spruce tree to repeat the process with some bees who had gathered back on the branch. As of today, Sunday, the bees are still in that hive. We now have three bee hives.

Shades of Purple

Lilacs

Lilacs

and more Lilacs

Chives

Thyme

Salvia with Violets

Salvia

Creeping Phlox

This Week’s Harvest

I harvested some chives and some oregano this week, both of which I am drying. I also harvested about 3 lbs. of asparagus. We have eaten some and I put some in the freezer. I also added some to a pot of split pea and asparagus soup that I made. The soup turned out really good. Hopefully we will continue picking asparagus for a couple more weeks.

Thanks for visiting!

The Week in Pictures

Apple Blossoms, Apple Trees, Bees, Birds, Chickens, Flowers, garden, garlic, Killdeer, Nature, Reflections, Tadpoles, The Farm, Weeding, , , ,

It seems like we have been waiting forever for the weather to get nice and now, all of a sudden, we have so much that needs to be done mowing, planting, weeding and more.

Missed Shots

Monday morning when we got to the farm I started on my walk with camera in hand. I began taking pictures of flowers in bloom only to realize that my camera battery was dead. The pictures would have to wait until later that day.

After my walk I began mowing grass being careful, as I normally am, not to run over any bees that were foraging in the dandelions. It may slow me down a bit but to me it’s worth it. I was mowing in the area near the gardens when I notice an adult killdeer running around, then as I looked closer, I saw the four babies. I’m sure they were only about a day old but I’m not sure where the nest was. At least it wasn’t in our driveway this year. I didn’t have my camera but was fairly certain they would be around later.

Not long after that, I was mowing not far from our beehive when I noticed that the bees were swarming. This is when I regretted not having my camera available. This is something you don’t see very often, and it is a sight to behold. Thousands of bees swarming outside of the hive. Keep in mind, if you ever see a swarm of honeybees, they are not a threat. They are in transition from one home to their next home and at this point their main objective is protecting their queen.

My husband and I kept an eye out to see where they landed, because he wanted to capture the swarm and put them in our empty hive if possible. They landed in a great location in a nearby spruce tree at a height where he could reach them. After lunch he went back to the farm alone (I stayed home with the dogs) and captured the swarm. Since I didn’t get any pictures of the swarm or him capturing it, I will refer you to this post from 2017 when he did the same thing.

It really was a gift having this hive swarm and being able to start a new hive with these bees since these bees were able to survive this past winter.

Now for some of the pictures from the week.

Nature

Three of the four baby killdeer.

Adult killdeer doing the broken wing act, trying to lure me away from the babies.

On Wednesday, we discovered another brood of baby killdeer running around in the front of the property, with the busy parents trying to keep track of them. We have to be careful when driving in or out, as they spend a lot of time in the driveway and they tend to blend in making them difficult to see.

This red winged black bird posed for me as I was walking around the back field. I assumed there was a nest nearby but since I didn’t know much about their nesting habits, I did a little research and came across this article. It explains that the female builds a nest between 6 inches and 6 feet above water or ground, anchored to upright stems of cattails, shrubs or tall grasses.

According to the article “Red-winged blackbirds are polygynous, meaning a single male defends a territory that contains the nests of multiple females. In Washington state, males typically have harems of 3 to 8 females nesting simultaneously on their territory.” It also states, “Both males and females defend nests aggressively, but they play different roles. Males are the more physically aggressive sex: they dive at, and sometimes strike, predators and intruders that come too close. During these attacks, males produce a distinctive growl call that they use only when actively diving at a threat. Females, meanwhile, vocalize at higher rates than males when a predator is nearby. The female scream call is the most effective alarm in the colony, attracting more birds and triggering the highest rate of hovering behavior from defenders.”

I remember several years ago I was walking in the back field and Trooper, our leonberger, was a ways ahead of me, I saw a red winged black bird diving at Trooper’s back. Trooper never saw the bird because it was behind him and the bird never actually touched Trooper, but it was definitely not happy the Trooper was there.

On Sunday we discovered, newly hatched, tadpoles in the pond. I had been watching for frog or toad eggs but never saw them. Obviously, they were there somewhere.

Before long we won’t be able to see this squirrel’s nest up in the pear tree.

Pear blossoms.

Apple trees blossoming in the wood line.

Remembering Our Moms

My husband picked out this beautiful dianthus to plant in memory of our moms.

The lungwort is also blossoming.

Behind the rock there are hosta plants and day lilies coming up as well.

Gardening

The garlic was being overrun with weeds.

I got about half of it weeded Saturday morning.

I didn’t get any pictures of it, but on Friday we got our new strawberry bed planted – 3 different varieties – 75 plants total.

Chickens

Just thought I would finish up with a shot of the girls enjoying their day.

Thanks for visiting.

It Looks Like Spring is Springing – Finally – I Think

Bees, Chickens, Daffodils, Dogs, Flowers, Reflections, spring, , , ,

After a brutally cold winter and a March that has seemed to be one step forward two steps back it looks like spring is springing. Monday and Tuesday were both t-shirt days (only the second and third ones we’ve had this year) so my husband and I got a few little outside jobs done at the farm.

Join me for some of our sights of spring.

The crocuses, our first spring flowers are blooming. 🙂

White one too!

Our mini daffodils began blossoming on Tuesday.

The rest of the daffodils are up but no flowers yet.

The garlic is up but seems slow. We had rain in the forecast for Tuesday, so I gave the garlic a dose of fertilizer on Monday. We did get some rain/storms Tuesday, but at least it wasn’t an all-day rain.

The chickens were out enjoying the weather. This hen actually stopped and posed for me. They have been laying good since the middle of February and some of them are starting to act broody. We will likely let a couple of them brood some chicks later this year.

The bees were out in full force. My husband mentioned seeing that they were carrying pollen back to the hive.

My best guess is that they are gathering pollen from the poplar trees

or the maple trees. Perhaps both.

Believe it or not we spotted our beagle fish on Monday. LOL. I thought it might be a bit early in the season for that.

Ruby didn’t do the full body plunge that Ranger did, but she was in far enough to get her belly wet. I’m looking forward to spending time in the pond too but not until it warms up A LOT!

Thanks for visiting. Has spring found you?

Our Bees Are Alive

Bees, Reflections

The above photo was taken during the summer of 2025.

Yesterday, when the sun was shining and the temperature rose into the low 40’s F, my husband saw bees flying in and out of our hive, taking cleansing flights. We find this amazing! It’s been many years since we have had bees that have survived the winter. Winter is not over yet but considering that they survived that long cold spell that we just experienced this is a very good sign.

Thanks for visiting.