Monday, March 26, 2018

Getting Ready for the Bees.

Two years ago, i decided to get bees, but at the time, it was going to be a part time hobby, to produce a little honey for ourselves and family.
However due to changing circumstances,  I have decided to make it a more prominent endeavor on the farm.  Unfortunately,  the hive that i had died last winter. I may have been partly my fault due to my inexperience in beekeeping.  I was going off the presumption that I knew enough from raising bees with my Father 35 years ago, but many things have changed since then. The rampent use of pesticides,  new diseases,  and new pests., most notably,  the Varroa Destructor.

That being said i decided it was time to get more knowledgeable about modern beekeeping.
I found out  at the February meeting pf the West Sound Beekeeping club that they were going to be offering a 6 week course in beginning beekeeping.  I decided that if I was serious about beekeeping that I needed to get my butt in that class.  It's been 5 weeks now and WOW, have I learned a lot.  Two more weeks to go, and several weeks after that, I'll be getting tow new bee hive packages, from improved bloodlines from California.


Saturday, January 13, 2018

STARTING OVER

Well, as you can maybe surmise by my previous posts is the pig project mostly failed. but not for trying.
After spending time reflecting on just went wrong I have distilled it down to 3 conditions

1. Expensive feed: I was not able to procure enough cheap feed like many other pork producers do.

2. Got in to Pig Breeding/ Rasing instead of starting slow and just rasing feeders.

3. Transportation. After the Truck broke down, I was spending so much money on feed that I could never get enough money to get the truck fixed... Everything spiraled down from there.

On the upside, the pigs did a fabioulous job of clearing the land so there's that.

I have now decided to get started (slowly) into the garden market business.
I just started learning the strategies from Curtis Stone, you can find out more about Curtis on
YouTube https://youtu.be/1MNhtcagNO0.
I am currently taking his online course and hope to replicate what he has done but on a smaller scale
his plan is based on a 1/4 acre..... more to come

UPDATE: After much pondering i have decided to get back into the bee business.
With the continued detorating health of my wife, and the limitations of still having a full time job, i believe that raising bees for pollination and honey, it is the best option for me at this time.....