Yeah, that's the ideal if the hive is strong, doesn't swarm much, and the weather cooperates you can get around that. I started keeping bees in 2014. Since then I've sold 132 gallons of honey. No idea at this point how much I've gotten. We use a lot. One year I got 50 gallons out of 3 hives.
But I'm in the south with a pretty ideal rural area. If you're thinking of having them in Washington it will be different with a shorter bloom season, harsher winters, and more honey needed for overwintering.
Yea, I have a lot of learning to do regarding homesteading in the PNW -- long winters, shitload of rain, very little sunlight. The winters aren't terribly harsh in terms of snow or cold, just long and dreary. Going to study this a lot: Spoiler Also going to try and do a rain cache and some other things to take advantage of the elements the best I can.
Will be interested to see how this goes for you Nug My wife has randomly been into more homesteading type things. She is making homemade soap and has a sourdough starter she made. Our goal this year is to get quite a few garden beds up to use. Last couple years we have just done a couple on the deck and some herb stuff inside. Not anywhere close to a full homestead, but hard to do some of that in the burbs. Can’t have chickens, and unlikely to do hives.
Going to be a slow process, but trying for the long con. Some pretty ambitious goals, but so be it. Speaking with a realtor later today that specializes in acreage/farm land in NW Washington.
Lotta sourdough here too. Some awesome (pizza dough), some a serviceable replacement (tortillas), some misses (brownies). Pretty neat, all in all. Got her an expensive bread pan for Christmas, which made the gift decision pretty easy.
She is almost ready to try some bread. We have been using the discard for crackers, cookies, pancakes, and donuts. It’s been pretty awesome. I did a lot of yard work right before winter and hoping I can start this spring to get the garden area ready.
Unseasonably warm here and all the early deciduous spring stuff is starting to wake up. Cannot wait to play with 500 feet of burlap rolls before the next deep freeze we get.
That load yielded 365 board feet, and paid $510. On the low end of quality. The other half of the load should be a little more volume and hopefully quality, though it's all basically windfall as it has to be removed for the pond project anyways. The buyer was kind enough to come out and show a noob where to cut the logs out of the trees, and moreso, help me develop a minimal plan for management. We have a few more mature ones that are closer to the end of their lifespan than the beginning. With a good market, it makes sense to harvest them sooner rather than later. One requires a creek crossing to be installed, which was in the plan anyway, but not at the top of the list. After that, we'd have a 20 year wait for the next round, which is absolutely fine. We're heavy towards young trees, and I intend to be a good steward to them even if we don't ever cut them for timber. I've really enjoyed the experience thus far. Hanging out in the log yard for a bit this morning with an expert was pretty neat. Seeing 1000 dollar logs is kinda cool. He only buys walnut and white oak, and had some beautiful veneer grade white oak on hand.
Lambing season's started. So far we have 11 lambs, but one of the ewes died due to lambing complications. So we have two bottle lambs, to the enjoyment of my girls.
billdozer it may have been asked before, but how much land do you have/what's your set-up? Just curious about how much livestock, what sort of food you have, and how much land it covers. Looks awesome.
We've got 17 acres and a barn. We've got my wife's horses, right now ~20 breeding sheep and will get ~34 lambs. We've got a couple livestock guardian dogs and a sheep dog. We have 15 or so chickens, so we're getting too many eggs right now. Then we have rabbits that are used for 4H, sold as pets, or my wife processes. Then I've got the bees. I've got a couple of fruit trees that aren't that successful and we have a garden that isn't that successful except for cucumber, zucchini, lettuce and okra. I've had blueberries, blackberries, and strawberries, but my wife let the sheep our around them and they're pretty much dead. Going to find a new fenced in area to do those now.
You're in SC? Seems like you're more geared towards livestock? I'm going to be leaning hard for blueberries + raspberries, they do great in the PNW. Not as great for greens, though. Only livestock I really want is chickens. Maybe some alpacas or donkeys just for the fuck of it. Done a lot of research with ducks, b/c duck eggs are fire, but I've read they're really dumb and messy bitches.
Yeah, in SC up near the mountains. My wife was an animal science major so it's more her thing than mine. Ducks are nasty, dirty animals. But tasty. My wife ended up being allergic to duck eggs.
https://www.redfin.com/WA/Deming/6171-Mt-Baker-Hwy-98244/home/15794804 Realtor walked it yesterday. It's pretty special, but would require a complete tear down of existing structure. In the 500 year floodplain, so not a risk even with the river frontage.
It's got a brewery right across the street I can't even dream of a better place for the next saga of the life of Nug, the farmer years
It's a very good brewery, too. Been a few times on the way to/from hiking in the Mt Baker wilderness. My realtor is a badass
Welp, if I can find a bank to give my degenerate ass money, going to make an offer this week. I'm already leveraged to the fucking gills with other properties and nowhere near filing my 2023 tax return, ¿pero porque no?
You ever grill those bad boys? I’ve got two peach trees which are really just an open pantry for the squirrels. Last year was a bad winter and I only had like a dozen fruits. Went out and checked them before work one day and thought they are pretty close, I’ll pick them when I get home tonight. When I got home from every single one was gone and I caught a glimpse of a squirrel at the rear of my yard trying to drag one up a tree.
Fucking squirrels man I've seen one carrying a whole pear in his mouth that was too big to fit through the hole in the chain link fence he tried to go through Just dropped it and left it with a big bite out of it. Most of my pears I find on the ground with a similar single bite The damage they do to the pecan crop is unbelievable too
I hate them. thinking about putting out bird feeders this year just to try to get them to leave my plants alone
Squirrels are delicious (I'm sure you know this). Clean, soak overnight in saltwater, fry. Maybe a peach compote topping?
I don’t know if my suburban neighbors would appreciate this, otherwise I’m 100% in agreement. Last house had a more private back yard and my pellet gun got some work in lol
I know this feeling Last summer was my third year with two peach trees and have still never eaten a peach. Had dozens of tiny peaches that gradually disappeared as they grew over the course of a month or so. Thinking of trying some netting this summer bc if I don't get to eat some peaches this summer I'm chopping these things down
The blooms and foliage do look nice in my opinion. One of the fruit trees I’d consider ornamental. I’m going to keep mine regardless. I’m also wondering if spraying the fruits with a cayenne pepper mixture when they get close to maturing would help keep the squirrels away
Lost out, they went with an offer of $75K over and 50% down. Couldn't compete with that. Still sucks.
The bees are ramping up. One hive had 9/10 frames like this. Took three to make a smaller hive and hopefully stave off thoughts of swarming. And kid tortured rabbits
How far away from the nearest city would you be willing to live for acreage + mountain views? I was thinking 20-30 minutes was my absolute max, but this place is 10 acres and about 40 minutes from Bellingham: https://www.redfin.com/WA/Deming/6336-Mt-Baker-Hwy-98244/home/45524236 For those fucking views I can make sacrifices...
Easy choice for me. I currently live an hour from the 'city' Have 3 small towns within about 15 to 20 miles in different directions, much like it looks like that place does. City is there if you need it, a weekly hour or so one way drive for stuff is very common around here. You'll figure out what you can get in the small towns as needed. Small town hardware places, garden supply and feed stores and such are awesome And Amazon is even closer for 99% of stuff. And, there looks to be a brewery closer than any gas station
It's all about your priority bro. We live 30 mins from "town", and 45 from the city. 10% of the time I wish we lived a little closer. 50% of the time I wish we were further.
Wife found a swarm (almost certainly a split off our colonies) at our place today. We cut the branches with all the bees off the tree and shook them in a box. 99% we eventually got the queen inside based on their behavior. They all went inside after a bit. Really cool to be a part of. Also, somehow I got stung zero times.
Nice. If they move into the box and don't head back to the tree like they did here, you got the queen. You'll also see them fanning at the entrance. Make sure to feed them. And swarms rarely sting. Don't have a home to defend and they're fat on honey so they can't bend their abdomen if they were inclined to sting. I'd check your hives, because they can continue to throw off swarms until the hive is down to nothing. If you have more swarms, there's a good chance they'll go to the same spot. The pheromones bring them. I save old queens I'm replacing in alcohol and put some of that and lemongrass oil at spots that are easily accessible. Often if I have a swarm the end up there.
One of my hives had really built up and to try and keep them from swarming I took 3 frames of brood and shook in some more bees from it and made a nuc and let them raise a queen. The queen is now out and looks good so far. Will see how she lays. And the hive doesn't look like it's interested in swarming so far. The bees are bringing in some nectar and the tulip poplar trees are starting to bud, so honey making should be in full swing soon.
IMO I'd still give the pellet gun a shot. The squirrels in Crestwood are such assholes. We have a lot fewer at the new place (because there are a shit ton of cats on our block, and fewer pecans/hickorys), but at the old place on 7th they'd destroy anything (including grass) that we planted. Always bitched about rabbits in St. Louis, but they are 100% better than the squirrels.
uncovered my climbing roses from winter, diplocarpon, right? Time to cut down infected canes to the crown?
We decided a big garden was too much to deal with for now, so we made a few raised beds from some old pavers we got years ago.
If you just uncovered them not sure how they would have that already. I’ve had good luck with this stuff. It’s a good preventative and should keep it from spreading. If the leaves start showing black spot/yellowing yeah might be time for a pruning plus treatment https://a.co/d/5ZfrZQG