July 23, 2011
I'll be harvesting honey from one of our backyard hives this morning. As mentioned in an earlier post I'll only be harvesting from one of the 4 hives I'm maintaining. The weather this spring and summer has just been brutal on new growing hives. But for the first harvest it looks like we are going to get plenty off of just this one happy hive. I'll post some photos of the process. Can't wait to taste!
July 19, 2011
Here are some of the lovely Cone Flowers, Echinacea spp., blooming in my garden right now. While many plants are literally melting away in the heat, these tough perennials are coming into their own. They show best when it's nice and hot outside...
Interestingly, many of these new varieties of cone flower have the most wonderful fragrance, which you don't get in the species or older cultivars. It's always a unexpected surprise to walk by them and get a waft of their sweet scent.
UPDATE: After several years of testing, many of these large flowered hybrids didn't stand the test of time as long-term perennials in the harsh heat of Texas, especially when growing next to a lot of heat reflecting concrete. BUT, getting a good three years out of them and the beauty they added to the garden was well worth it!
Echinacea 'Mama Mia'
PC: Leslie F. Halleck
Echinacea 'Summer Sky'
PC: Leslie F. Halleck
Echinacea 'Summer Sun'
PC: Leslie F. Halleck
Echinacea 'Tangerine Dream'
PC: Leslie F. Halleck
July 18, 2011
I'll be posting a series of photos of plants that are beating the heat in my summer garden. With the hottest June on record just past and no end in sight for the 103+ temps it's good to know which plants can take the heat and still look beautiful in the garden.
Here is a lovely Pride of Barbados, Caesalpinia pulcherrima, I keep in a large container on the front porch. It gets scalding hot Western sun in the afternoon. But it's beautiful!
July 14, 2011
Ok..are these babies cute are what??? Here they are about a week old...
Little Cochin...hopefully a Blue, but probably a Black
Little Polish...White Crested Black, or may end up Speckled
Little Polish #2...Looks like she will be a Silver/Blue! (yay)
July 6, 2011
Soooo...I got a call from the post office this morning that I had baby chicks waiting for me. WHAT??? This was a back order from 6 months ago that I'd cancelled a while back. For whatever reason, they shipped the chicks anyway. Yikes!! Well, what do you do...you can't ship them back...So, I ran back at lunch to pick them up and then set up a new brooder for them right quick.
I'll be raising these three little babies for a while. Two are Polish hens and I'm not sure what the other one is just yet (Just figured out it's probably a Cochin, either blue or black...which I MUST have! lol). I really only have room for one more chicken...two more would be pushing it. But, it's going to be really hard not to get attached to these little munchkins. So, I may have a couple of specialty breeds that will need a new home in a bit...I'll keep you posted!
July 5, 2011
It's been a tough spring/summer for growing beehives. We had a stint of unseasonably cool weather and rain in May, followed by an unseasonably HOT dry June. Thus, I have mixed rates of development among my four hives. Between the two I have in my home garden and the two I have up at the garden center, I have two hives that seem very close to right on schedule in terms of honey storage, and two that are very behind. In fact, it appears that I may only be able to harvest this year off the two more advanced hives. Generally, you should only harvest a full honey super. If your hive has only one super on it come harvest time (here it's early to mid-July) then you are best to leave that honey for your growing hive. Do to the almost complete lack of honey in the hive that is behind, and the fact that it isn't an issue with the queen at this point (the hive is queen-right) I've decided to go ahead and start feeding that hive again, something you would normall not do at this stage of honey production.
I had to re-queen two of the hives this spring. Interestingly enough, the one hive that is behind at my house, is one that had to be re-queened in the middle of spring. But the hive that is on schedule up at the garden center is one that I re-queened about a month ago. It's just goes to show how detrimental re-queening can be when it's done right in the middle of spring brood production.
That said, the two hives that are on schedule have done a bang up job and their supers are loaded with honey. It's amazing how heavy one super full of honey can be! We will most likely try to harvest next week or shortly thereafter. Can't wait!
July 3, 2011
I have a ton of summer plant photos to share...just haven't had time to get anything posted! I'll try to get a few up in the next couple of days. Here is a shot of one of my 'Easy Does It' roses. This Floribunda is doing great and flowering right along even in 103F degree weather. I've been very impressed with it's performance.
The heat definitely impacts flower size and color for most plants, so you can expect the flowers on this rose to be much larger and more vibrant in the spring and fall. But considering the temps right now, the flowers are stil attractive. The bees have been enjoying them this morning...
June 16, 2011
R.I.P Pecker...you were such a great chicken! Pecker was a 2 1/2 year old Ameraucana who layed the prettiest blue eggs, every day, on time, no complaints. No drama with Pecker, she was all about business. Hard not to be sad, even though they are livestock. I still get attached...I'm just a big softy (shhhhh, don't tell anyone!)
Got a call from the husband at work on Tuesday evening...he said he'd just found her keeled over in the coop. No warning. We still can't figure out what happened unless the heat just got to her. Even though she seemed perfectly fine the night before. What a bummer. So, Phyllis is the last of the original gang of girls. Who'd have thunk she would hang on the longest.
It's a good idea to add electrolytes to your chicken's water during the summer months. Helps with heat stress. If you have a chicken that seems week or disorented in the heat, you can hose them down or even hold them in a bucket of cool water for a few minutes. I actually did this with Phyllis yesterday. Make sure they have access to shade in the afternoon. I like to give my girls chilled watermelon in the summer. They LOVE it and it cools them off.
Anyhoo...I'll miss her and and blue eggs. Sniff, sniff.
