Backyard Farmgals

With all of this snow and cold temperatures I have been concerned about our bees.  This is our third year keeping bees, and we have not been successful through the winter.  Our first year, we got a swarm very late in the season, and they were not well established when winter hit.  The second year, the hive was blown over in a horrible wind storm with 103 mile-per-hour winds. This year, so far, so good.  We knocked on the side of the hive this morning and the bees buzzed back.  I am so hopeful. I wanted to share what we did to improve the chances of survival for our hive.  People say that you don't need to do anything for them in the winter, but with the luck we have had, we decided it was better to be safe than sorry.  We put three bales of straw around the hive with a gap between the bales and the hive to promote air flow.  We get so much snow at the farm (we usually have at least 3-feet before the winter is over), we thought it would be ...

It was 8ºF at the farm this morning.  I don't think that I need to tell you that is cold, certainly not as cold as other places, but it really can be a challenge to keep all the outside animals warm and healthy when the temperatures drop so low.  There are a few things that we do to help the animals stay toasty. 1.  SHELTER.  Make sure that your outside animals have a dry place for when the storms are raging.  This is huge.  If animals can stay dry, they stay so much warmer.  Our chickens have the barn of barns, the rabbits have their hutches, but the horse is not so lucky.  We are saving up to build him a barn (barns are expensive!), for now he has a temporary shelter.  We made him a large dry area by spanning his run with 2 x 4's and covering them with plywood and tarps.  He is able to stay out of the weather, and to make it all a little more cozy, he has a lean-to to bed down in and to protect him from the wind and weather. ...

We woke to 6-inches of snow...every kid's dream!!! Who needs breakfast when there's snow to be played in??? It's not any fun unless you close your eyes!!! Bird feeders were busy this morning! The barn looked so peaceful... Chickens were warm in their nesting boxes... And "Brig" the rooster was busy keeping the girls in line! We played on the sled, threw snowballs, and built a snow fort... And giggled... It was oodles of fun!!! Hoping for snow again next Saturday...

Farmgal as an 11-year-old girl in Taipei.  On top of the apartment roof.  It was the 80's...I look so stylin'!!! If you are unaware, the last few days in Utah have been quite difficult.  Thursday morning, we woke to the worst East wind that we have had since I have been married (that's almost 12 years).  Wind speeds at over 100 miles per hour and pieces of our neighbors houses and trees flying all around us.  If you have never experienced wind that strong, it is a very powerful force.  It swept me off my feet on the way out to our chickens here at the house, and you can hardly breathe while you are standing in it.  The force of it is astounding.  I have experienced worse winds as a child living in Taiwan during typhoon season.  The wind and rain would pound our windows, and our apartment building would actually sway under the force of the wind.  The streets would flood, and since there were open sewers in the 1980's, flooding was not...