Two weeks after being diagnosed with a severe allergic response to limonene and fragrance mix II, my allergist added "propolis" to the list after a delayed response marker appeared on my back. Shit. Propolis is resin collected by honeybees used to fill crevices and to seal honeycombs. Fucking bee glue. Confused on why I would …
Tag: homesteading
Bad Chicken Mother – Shut Yo Mouth!
I am a terrible chicken mother. Two weekends ago, our family brought home 13 chicks from the local farm and feed store. We've raised chickens before but haven't for the past couple of years. To be honest, raising chickens from chicks is a royal pain in the ass. We swore up and down that we would never cross …
Amateur Hour in the Bee Yard
A week and a half ago, approximately 30,000 honeybees were delivered on my front doorstep. I have to admit that I was a little surprised to see my purchase of three, 3-pound boxes of bees delivered. I must have a ballsy mailman. Bees in shipment are notorious for picking up “hitchhikers” or other honeybees in …
Let’s Get This Kombucha Started!
My little experiment has begun! Researching kombucha recipes online, I found that the suggested ratio is eight tea bags to one gallon of water, with one cup of sugar dissolved in. Of course, I can never leave well enough alone and had to tweak the recipe; in order to mask some of the vinegary taste, I prepped my kombucha last …
It Has Arrived!
I am flipping ecstatic right now! Guess what showed up in the mail today? Huh?! Huh?! No guesses?! My SCOBY! What in the hell is a SCOBY, you ask? SCOBY stands for Symbiotic Colony Of Bacteria and Yeast, and can also be known as a "mother" or "mushroom". Don't be confused; this is no fungi, but a …
Repurposed Grass Clippings
A couple of months ago, a coworker told me about an ingenious way he used grass clippings from his freshly mowed yard: in the chicken coop! This afternoon was our first mow of the season. After mowing, sweeping the yard, and pulling weeds around the front walk, instead of dumping the clippings into an ugly, …
Split – 21 March 2015
My hesitance to post about my bees was simply due to the fact that I didn’t want to jinx the girls before they had a chance. (My poor Chickens….) While I have not done an inspection since my split, I feel fairly safe in saying that the split indeed was successful, and I again have …
Jinxed
Now I’ve gone and done it. I’ve jinxed my hens. After introducing our girls, doesn’t it gosh-darn figure that once I write about them in detail, they start getting picked off, one by one? Granted, we have lost five hens over the past three years to predators (six if you count the teenagers that chicken-napped …
Peeping Chicken
So, would these be considered "Peeping Chickens"?!
You Say Toe-may-toe, I Say Toe-mah-toe
Describing my dad’s garden in Brussel Sprouts That Don’t Taste Like a Cave must have got me in the mood for my garden, because last night, after the kids were in bed and the dinner dishes done, I couldn’t wait to start my seeds for this year’s garden. Armed with a pair of tweezers and …
viCARIously Speaking 