When the goats first came home, I set up a routine of mucking out their living quarters about every 2 weeks, putting down a fresh bed of straw after each cleaning. While they were eating mostly milk, and then transitioned to grazing for most of the day in the field behind the house, that worked …
Author Archives: rpgreen61
Another take on hawks
Last weekend I invited a friend of a friend, Selena, to bring her young red tailed hawk, Lofn, to hunt at Green Acres Farm. OK, so some of you are thinking I am a bit crazy inviting a falconer to bring her hawk hunting at the farm just a week after losing a third chicken …
Cheesemaking: Embracing imperfection
If you are a recovering perfectionist, and are looking for an activity that will support and encourage that recovery, cheese making just might be for you! I started my cheese making adventure in 2021 when our mama goat had filled our refrigerator to overflowing with milk. Even after I started making homemade yogurt, we just …
Chicken Hawk
When I look in my bird book there is actually no such bird as a chicken hawk, but according to Wikipedia it is an unofficial designation for three types of hawks: Cooper, Sharp Shinned and Redtail. Recent personal experience has given me a pretty good idea of how a hawk becomes designated a ‘chicken hawk’. …
Chicken Feathers
I have been taking every opportunity to be outside to enjoy the unseasonably warm weather this week. And given the number of chicken feathers decorating the yard I suspect that I am not the only one at the farm grateful for these warm days. In general, a pile of chicken feathers can be an ominous …
Home Grown
My mom grew up on a small family farm outside of Detroit at the end of the depression where she learned the value of local food production, eating what you can grow or find and putting up food during the plentiful summer and fall to help feed the family through the winter and spring. Those …
The smell of the end of summer
What smell would you bring to mind, if I asked you what the end of summer smells like? As we approach apple season, I can imagine you saying “warm apple pie”. Or if state fairs were a part of your growing up, “cotton candy”, or “hot funnel cake”. Or if canning is a family tradition, …
The wildlife is winning
When you live on a farm in the country, sharing your space with wild creatures comes with the territory, and for the most part that is a good thing, but this year, it sometimes feels like we are at war and the wild life is winning. I guess I should be pleased that the deer …
Swarm Catchers
The best laid plans of mice and men, or in this case beekeepers, often go awry. And when it comes to swarms, this year my bees have definitely had a mind of their own. I don’t entirely understand why they are having such a hard time sticking with the plan. I talk to them regularly …
The Buzz about Beeswax
Before I became a beekeeper, I had never done anything with beeswax, or even owned a beeswax candle. But since I started keeping bees, I have learned that beeswax is pretty amazing. Around 2-3 weeks of age, worker bees develop 4 pairs of wax producing glands on the underside of their abdomens. These glands secrete …