With our oldest ‘mama’ goat expecting kids again in the next few days, my mind is drawn to motherhood on the farm, so I thought I would share one of our recent “mothering” adventures. Those of you who have read my prior stories know fostering chicks with a broody hen is a useful alternative to …
Category Archives: Farm stories
Tail feathers
The backyard is littered with feathers …. and a reliable eyewitness reports that the perpetrator of the attempted murder was a member of our household. Meet Willow. She is a Bernedoodle, who joined us in Decembers, at age 7 months, and will be one year old next week. Although she is our third dog, she is …
Black gold
“Composting is the natural process of recycling organic matter, such as leaves and food scraps, into a valuable fertilizer that can enrich soil and plants. Anything that grows decomposes eventually; composting simply speeds up the process by providing an ideal environment for bacteria, fungi, and other decomposing organisms (such as worms, sowbugs, and nematodes) to …
Stow aways!
For me, preparing hives for winter means putting insulation on the top, wrapping the hives with a relatively modest insulation, and adding mouse guards to the entrances. The mouse guards are needed because, believe it or not, mice love to cohabitate with bees during the winter. They seem willing to risk the possibility of being …
Sad goodbye
For most of my life I have had cats and right up to the age of 50, I would have told you I was a cat person, through and through. My husband, Gary, is definitively a dog person, but for years declined to adopt a dog because we were both working long hours and he …
A $600 jar of honey
I am the editor for the Michigan Beekeepers Association‘s (MBA) quarterly newsletter, and I wrote this story for my “Editor’s Musing” section of the newsletter that came out in November. At the moment it was happening, it didn’t seem amusing at all, but after the fact, it makes for an interesting story, so thought I …
Farmers Market Friends
It feels like a long time since I sat down and posted anything about life on Green acres farm. OK, it has been a long time! It has been a busy summer, with too many things calling for my attention! Between the garden, chickens, goats and ESPECIALLY bees, this summer kept me hopping! But we …
Swarmy Weather
Don’t know whyThere’s those bees up in the skySwarmy weather… May is swarm season in Michigan, and swarm season can get a little crazy. This year it seems crazier than most. I spent the early part of May working hard to keep up with my bees, with the goal of managing swarming. If you want …
If you don’t like the weather just wait….
Another take on hawks
Last weekend I invited a friend of a friend, Selena, to bring her young red tailed hawk, Lofn, to hunt at Green Acres Farm. OK, so some of you are thinking I am a bit crazy inviting a falconer to bring her hawk hunting at the farm just a week after losing a third chicken …