Author: Robyn

On the day before Easter, we got a special delivery: A friend of mine had baby goats who needed fostering, so we volunteered to take them. Best Easter basket ever! We named them Bunny (left) and Cadbury (right). For about a week we bottle fed them, then we were able to get my LaMancha milk…

We’ve had a lot of storms this spring, which means older and weaker trees are coming down. Last week we dealt with this one. I think this one was a hackberry. It was rotten in the middle up where it broke. Because of the position, we had to put a ripe around it and keep…

It’s been a busy spring! Here’s a quick snapshot of some of the does and our guardian dogs relaxing one evening.

Spring seems to be a busy time out here! The bees are becoming active again, and we see them out collecting water and visiting flowers. Babies are starting to arrive as well. Our first babies, in early February, were twin doelings born to our LaMancha doe, Dottie. The birth went smoothly, and these little girls…

For the new year, I thought we’d start out with a tour of the ranch and an introduction to its residents. Our first additions to the ranch were three hives of bees. We didn’t get them established until late in the spring and it was a rough year for beekeeping, so we haven’t gotten any…

Since our last update we’ve had quite a bit of growth at the ranch! First, the bees have continued to do well. We added supers (additional smaller boxes) onto the hives to give them space to expand and store honey for the winter. If they do very, very well we might be able to harvest…

On Friday, Mom drove to Navasota to pick up our three nucs of bees. She ended up with a few loose bees in the car, but they gravitated toward the rear window so they didn’t cause much disruption. (All the same, I’m happy to leave the bee transport duties to her!)  When she arrived, I…

Not much has changed since the last update. We expect the bees this weekend and have been making final preparations for their arrival. The hives are ready to go, and we’ve chosen a location for them. Unfortunately our first choice of locations, with morning sun and afternoon shade as bees prefer, had to be ruled…

There hasn’t been much to post about as we’re still in the planning and preparing stage. However, an empty blog is awfully boring, so I’m going to try to post a weekly update about some of the little things we’ve been doing and plans we’ve been making until we have more substantial updates to share.…

It’s been a couple of weeks since we moved to the ranch, and we’ve been settling in and taking stock of where we are and what our next steps are. Our plan is to start with producing honey — especially since having bees on the property will be beneficial for just about everything else we…