Recent content by Buzz'n Billy

Boo and goats go together like peanut butter and jelly. I'm Planting a bunch of "invasive", "swarming" and "nasty" bamboo that I hope takes over a section of the farm and will use it for winter grazing my goats. 15%+ crude protein levels in winter...now, whatcha think about bamboo? ...thought...

That's what we did when we bought our herd. They were on a totally feed/grazing/bought hay management system. We have 10 acres we needed help clearing. There were a few bumps the first week, but after that they are doing their job very well. We keep them in 1/2 acre "paddocks" of net fencing...

We had a bottle baby and did something similar. We don't live at our farm, currently, so we would take the baby home with us each afternoon, then send her to "kid"ergarten every day when we arrived at the farm. She learned how to be a goat, and still got her bottles/nourishment. After she was...

Good list of reading! I too started my "collection" with Beekeeping for Dummies and quickly added ABC & XYZ of Bee Culture. Since then I've heard/read on forums that the Complete Idiots Guide to Beekeeping is a bit better than the Dummies, but at the end of the day you probably can't go wrong...

Alicia, I strongly second the thought of you to getting in contact with a local beekeeper or bee club and look into purchasing a nucleus hive (nuc) from a local producer. Packages can build into strong colonies, but many times they have more queen issues than nucleus hives. Plus, looking at...

Yes, I would imagine it's possible to make a surplus honey crop, but the bees would have to be in such large numbers at the beginning of the bloom to do so. Most don't have the weather to accomplish this. The blueberry grower near me has about 5 acres in blueberries and the hives are still...

All the hives around here are buzzing and bustling. Looking to start some early queen grafts on 2/2 ( about 10 days ahead of schedule) since capped drones are starting to appear. Today's temps are going to be in mid 70's, which doesn't hurt. Local blueberry nursery around the corner from the...

We did 10 acres in about a week. That included digging the 50 fence posts by hand. The H braces and double H braces were done the week before.

@Happy Chooks No, we just feed sugar water. Yay for pollen!!!

@Baymule thanks! Bees shut down and stop doing a lot when the days grow short. When the winter solstice arrives, the days start getting longer, therefore they start gathering resources to build up for the busy season. We can start to "stimulate" them by either open feeding or internally...

We stimulated our bees on the Solstice. Today's hive inspection found beautiful brood patterns, emerging brood, and TONS of pollen being brought in! Very pleased today.

@Meaghan Our farm is right down the road from you in Dunnellon. We put in a 7 strand, smooth wire fence in this past summer. We have beefy electric to it (5 are hot, 2 are ground). Furthermore, we keep our goats in net fencing, also with electric. The smooth wire is not popular or...

We are "guestimating" our kid arrival - because we bought bred goats - and gave the CD&T booster this past weekend. I have finally become a goat farmer, because I spend more time watching va-jay-jay's than what they are doing. Good Luck

It's been over a week now and our little gal is thriving! She's very excited to see us, but loves her herd. We have a wean date set of January 1st, and are starting to work toward that goal. I must say that having a bottle baby was not in our plan (at all!), but it's been a great experience...

We made the transition. Our kid stayed with the herd for her first full night (without us there) Monday night. Hubby got to the farm early and she was playing and running and jumping. Happy to get her bottle, but he said she did not appear distressed or unhappy. I guess we were good Maa's to...