First thing Saturday morning, I went up to the orchard to check on them, as well as feed/water all of the chickens. When I got there, my heart sank. I saw a hole dug under the bottom of the movable house and there were no birds inside the pen! No feathers, bones, or other remnants of the birds. It’s as if something dug underneath, went in with a gunny sack and carried them all off.

So, I’m out about $160 for the 50 broiler chicks and the 10 turkeys I had ordered. And if I can’t get any more turkey chicks, we won’t be raising any to put in the freezer.

I guess we’ll go back to raising them in the garage side of the basement and putting them outside when they are 4 weeks old.

On a more positive note, Saturday morning, while waiting for customers to pick up their produce, I pulled 18 full frames of honey that were “capped”. I also saw that the bees were still working on an additional 12 frames that were not ready yet. “Capped” means that the bees have reduced the water content of the honey to 16% and sealed the cells with a coat of wax. How they know when it is at 16% water content, I don’t know. I do know that if I take the honey before they cap it, it will go rancid, but if I wait until they cap it, it will keep forever if it is kept in a sealed bottle after extracting it from the comb.
With my sons’ and nephew’s help, we extracted that honey. I poured it into the filter on the 5 gallon bucket and then bottled 19 pounds of honey (there is still between 1/3 and 1/2 of the 5 gallon bucket full).

I put the frames back in the supers on Sunday afternoon.

–Pat

So, while I was waiting for some of the later arriving CSA customers, I pulled the full frames off of the hives.

I then proceeded (with Sam & Aric’s help) to extract the honey.
I just finished bottling 16 – 1 pound containers and a quart jar full (for us) and still have over 1/2 of a 5 gallon bucket.

I should be able to pull the rest off next weekend. Now, if the other hives (or even if these same 3 hives) up another super full of honey, I’ll be in fine shape…