Saturday, April 14, 2012

Busy As A HONEY Bee

"You know you have to make hay while the sun shines, in our case I guess it is make honey while the flowers bloom." - Guy the Beekeeper 
Lately I have been working very hard and Finally, I am seeing results and it is so nice! A Youth Loan is offered by the FSA (Farm Service Agency). This loan is exceptionally great! There is only a 1.25% interest rate, 5-7 years to pay it off and the ability to apply for up to $5,000. The loan is targeted to youth because of the agriculture youth are involved in around my area. After looking into it some, we decided that it would be a good opportunity for me. The paper work took a little while, about 2 weeks. On the 4th of this month the paperwork and signatures were finalized. I applied for just shy of $5,000. By the 6th it was transferred into an account that I set up and the 9th it was time to get to work! Daddy has been helping me with all the accounting and keeping me straight while momma makes sure I have everything and am being safe around the bees.
Monday night I bought 3 beautiful, healthy hives from a long time beekeeper. He showed us quite a few and I personally found the Queen bee in 4 of his hives. That is a BIG accomplishment in the beekeeping world. Thursday I had a man and his son build a nice little honey house for me. Tim Richardson did really good work in a short amount of time, the honey house was finished Friday. Sometime soon I have my mentor coming to look everything over and he is bringing me 3 nucs. -Will explain about that in a later post-

My Honey Bee Journey
The air is full of little  yellow honey bees in the afternoon.

Pottery Barn Colors! Momma loves them and is
sad that I might have to paint over them .


The foundation and beginning of my honey house!

All sides are done and its time for the roof....

The honey house is 10x12 with a 4 ft. loft to store equipment.



Just after being painted, the red is beautiful! 

The Finished Honey House! 
I can't tell you how excited I have been about all this! Many of my friends and Family know that I am Floating because of how ready I am to really get into all that is to come. A Honey House is where I will be able to store: Jars, Labels, Buckets, Supers, Frames, Foundation and Honey. This week will be the time for us to add electricity and water lines. We have been blessed to receive a sink from another house and that will go in here, also some insulation from an old chicken house that I have cleaned to put in there. There's still plenty to do but I will keep ya updated!

Gabby .V.

Saturday, April 7, 2012

New Additions

We have had some new additions to the farm over the past two weeks. It is amazing to see all the blessing that God is adding to our lives. Let's get some pictures to show yall!

Malachi and Maya with a Flemmish Giant female. 

Victor with the rabbit that is as big as he is! 

Dad brought the Angora rabbit up.... its  huge! 

Malachi with his Angora. 

She's beautiful and as big as my cat! 

Want a little help there boys? 

Lion Head, isn't it cute? 

It looks like Anna :) 

Beautiful girl with a very cute rabbit. 
This rabbit is about 2 months old. 


Mom went to the cattle sale and came back with this Guinea. 

Me and Anna named him Olaf haha. He makes funny sounds
and Molly likes to chase him.

We also have 2 bunnies that are broken coat and are only about 2 weeks old. They are precious and so small still. The cow, Molly, is supposed to have her calf any day now. We actually think that it could be today. No tellin but its very near her time! That is going to be very exciting. And we have some good advice to go by. We also are buying 4 goats soon. 2 weathers and 2 nannies.  So look for all those babies soon!

Gabby .V.