Our lovely Wiltipoll ram ‘220’ or ‘toots’ for short, died today. We don’t know how or why, but it is likely he disturbed a tiger snake from its slumber when the sheep were let into a new paddock. He was a great ram, and fathered great lambs. Finn the dog will miss a good mate too, when he is able to run around once more.
Finn whispering sweet nothings into toots’ ear!
Well, what a surprise to get home one day to see Finn, one of our three dogs, on the the wrong side of the gate. That turned to dismay when it was obvious he was injured. A trip to the emergency vet confirmed a badly broken leg requiring surgery to insert a pin through the thigh bone (which was in three pieces), a plate and 11 screws holding it all together. Now he needs to be confined to a cage for 12 weeks to allow it to heal- and that is no fun for a big, active farm dog! We have a 1.2 x70 cage in the bathroom for while we are at work and overnight, and this smaller one in the lounge so he can be with us and the other dogs in the evenings.
Finn, looking sorry for himself!
We don’t know how he got out- he could have jumped the fence or gate, but however he did it meant he got out onto the road and was hit by a car.
After the last harvest of honey, we washed and melted down the wax cappings…….ready to make…..lip balm! It worked really well following this recipe. It made several tubs and tubes, and is just perfect for dry lips! The recipe has 4-5 drops of peppermint essence, but it really doesn’t need it- just the honey flavour is wondereful enough!!
Beeswax and Honey Lip Balm
The warm weather in Perth has meant quite an extended growing season for some of our edibles, so the produce room is filling up! We had to rearrange shelving to enable us to fit in more jars of produce on one side, but gave us space on the other for our beekeeping gear. We also purchased a ‘wine’ cooler in which to keep produce that needed refrigerating, as the main fridge was getting too full!
Produce shelves filling up!
Another honey harvest this week gave us over 3 litres of honey from two frames. We were a bit more ‘vigourous’ with scraping the capping off and left it to drain a bit longer than last time. Also this time, we cleaned up the wax capping to enable us to use the beeswax!
Plenty of honey and some beeswax ready for making lip balm!
Our first harvest was a great success!! All the frames in the super were laden with honey and were well capped, so we removed two of the centre frames for harvesting.
Brushing the bees off a frame of capped honey
We used a very simple drainage system- the top bucket has a large hole through which the honey drains through a filter and into the bottom bucket which has a tap in the bottom.
Bucket honey draining system
After scraping the capping off, we let the honey drain for at least 24 hours, then poured it into jars. These first two frames gave us 2.3 litres of honey!
Once each frame had drained, we returned it to the super for the bees to tidy and rebuild! As our super was so full of honey, we also added an empty super for them to move in to.
After the continuous heat of a Perth summer, we are now enjoying ideal growing conditions! We have had a bit of rain, plenty of sunshine, and reasonable temperatures, so everything is growing well. The herb garden is looking great- partly due to the weather and partly due to attaching a sprinkler to the top of a windmill stand so they could be cooled down more easily.
Herb garden
Herb garden with sprinkler on top of the windmill stand!
This area has been so successful, our next ‘project’ (there is never nothing to do!) is to bring the pumpkin palace and two large raised beds to this area too. This is for a number of reasons-the raised beds are certainly successful; being near the back door is also beneficial; the area currently being used will revert to a ‘clucker tucker’ (poultry food) area for the poultry to get a good source of greens without damaging the paddocks too much; and concentrating the vegetable growing areas really just makes managing it all much easier!
Also growing particularly well are the bananas in the atrium! It will be interesting to see how they go over winter, as it does get quite chilly in there, but they have grown amazingly over summer!
Bananas in the atrium (glass roofed entrance)
Well, it has certainly been a hot summer here in Perth, but despite this we have had an abundance of some vegetables! The aquaponics system is amazing…a couple of shade sails over the top to protect from the overhead sun, and there has been incredible growth in comparison to the dirt garden.
Aquaponics system in February
Although some of the veggies exposed to the sun, like the rainbow chard, wilt by the end of the day, they perk up beautifully and keep us well supplied! Warrigal (Botany Bay Greens or New Zealand Spinach) has been a prolific grower all through summer. The barramundi in the aquaponics system fish tank are growing well, though we haven’t caught any yet. We have had a few silver perch from the swimming pool though!
Perch from the pool
This is the pickings from just one day….rainbow chard, silver beet, perpetual spinach, warrigal, basil, kang kong, malabar spinach, and spring onions are all from the aquaponics system. Zucchini, cucumber, and spaghetti squash are from our ‘Pumpkin Palace’, and the mushrooms were growing in the paddock and were too good to overlook! There are also figs, chilli, tomato and capsicum in amongst the green!
One day’s pickings
Pumpkin Palace is covered in butternut and delicata pumpkin, cucumber, spaghetti squash and the beginnings of luffa!
Pumpkin hanging from the roof of the ‘Palace’
Just 4 weeks after adding the super, the bees are making lots of honey! Seven of the ten frames in the box have honey and are feeling quite heavy, though there is no capping yet, which the bees do when the honey is ‘just right’. When the majority of a frame is capped, this is an indication that the honey is mature enough to harvest.
Honey production well underway!
We also took the opportunity to check the brood box, and found a lot of activity there too.
A healthy looking frame from the brood box
The bees seem to be thriving- we have lots of jarrah and some redgum in flower at the moment, and these are a good source of nectar for the bees. We added the super, with the queen excluder between it and the brood box below, on Christmas eve, and the bees moved up into it straight away. During some very hot (40C plus) weather over between Christmas and New Year, we noticed a lot of ‘bearding’ (when the bees cover the front of the box). This is often something they do to keep cool and to keep the hive cool.
Checking the frames in the super- the bees are very active only 2 weeks after adding the super
We were thrilled today to have a Southern heath monitor (also known as Rosenbergs goanna) visit! It was gorgeous, about 50 cm long, and seemed quite content to be around us!
