Doing Mid-Summer Morning Chores
I thought you all might like to go along with Ron and do the morning chores on this hot summer day. We have chores down to pretty good system. Ron still works a full-time job so systems are needed here on the homestead. Right now our animals are easy to care for and we are very careful to make sure that we don’t bring in any high maintenance animals for now. I’ll bring you along with pictures but if you want to get a real behind the scenes view check out the video here.
Feeding the Laying Hens
Right now the only chickens on the homestead are our laying hens. There are 14 of them and we have them free ranging in a part of our pasture where they get their fill of grasshoppers and other delicious bugs. To help make sure they continue laying, they are fed a laying crumble which gives them the protein that they need to keep laying big beautiful eggs. Our hens lay eggs in the colors of green, blue and brown.
The system we have for feeding the laying hens are gravity fed tubes. Here is an article that explains how to make your own gravity fed tubes. Ron fills them on the week-end and there is enough laying crumble to last through the week for our hens. He does have to go out every morning and clean the water troughs out and give them fresh water every morning. Right now he also puts a freezie bottle in each waterer during these hot summer months.
Feeding the Honey Bees
Our honey bees are pretty self-sustainable, however, in this heat just about every plant has died and any blossoms that the bees could fed off of have withered away. So, Ron does give them sugar water during this time. This helps feed and hydrate the bees until fall. He feeds both hives every other week or so.
He never knows what kind of mood the bees will be in, laid back and easy to get along with or… in the mood to sting! After a couple of stings he has decided to suit up in a bee suit and to use his smoker. The smoker helps to relax the bees and make them easier to work with. Here is a look at when he first brought the bees home.
Hope you enjoyed doing chores with Ron. Let me know what kind of chores y’all have to do out here in the heat.
Here is to your homesteading dreams,
Shawn