Ten Days Later

There's little sign of new brood in the hive, but we have three capped queen cells to hopefully provide a new, strong queen for the colony in the next week.  A friend observes that we may have had a quick swarm when we weren't looking, which would explain the lower-than-expected numbers of bees present in the hive, and the lack of new brood.  The queen may very well have left the building, and the strongest of the new queens will hopefully have a successful mating flight and lead our colony into a season of honey production and preparation for the fall and winter.  The rainy weather won't be ideal for a good flight, but it looks like next weekend might bring sunnier days.

The honeysuckle is blooming, and I love wandering in the garden right now, and smelling the scent in the breeze. Kale, chard, turnips and spinach are ready for harvest, and there are a few peas making an appearance after an early April planting. I've switched over to pole beans for now, and may seed more peas this fall in the few empty feet of trellis space once the weather cools down again.

Speaking of cool weather, as my father-in-law said the other day, it's been great for people who don't like extreme heat,  but not great for the vegetables that need it.  The tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and zucchini are growing ever so slowly in our hoop houses, though my neighbour does have some blossoms and small fruits on some of her squash and tomato plants.

Berry picking is starting up, with black currents and strawberries starting off the season - gooseberries, raspberries and blueberries are showing promise of good crops as well. Freezing of daily picking has begun, in preparation for jam making later in the year.

The bunnies are happy and healthy, though decidedly smaller than some of our previous animals. Feeding them a variety of greens makes us feel like they have more enjoyment of their day, but it does affect the amount of weight gain we see on butchering day. Some of the kits are quite plump, while a few are very light -  and they only have two weeks left to grow.  We're looking at possibly crossbreeding our Florida Whites with a friendly Champagne D'Argent buck in an effort to produce a calmer, slightly larger animal. Time will tell.