All Hands on Deck

Everyone here on Gael Glen Farm has a job.  Some of us have many jobs, while others have just one really important one.  Together we are a force to be reckoned with.

Around here, one of my jobs is friendly neighbourhood beekeeper.  Today in our apiary, it was time to do spring splits as swarm control.  Long story short, we had two hives this morning and by lunch time we had five.  Our two queen bees have ended up somewhere in those hives; we will not know where they are until my next hive check.  In a week or so I will look to see which hives have eggs (meaning a queen is present) and which have built replacement queen cells (meaning that they have no queen and are growing a new one).  Everything about the splits went perfectly and the bees are busy adjusting to their new living arrangements.

In terms of maintaining our gardens, Ian, the big boys, and I share this job.  Today Liam and I planted the last of our herbs and head lettuce.  We also weeded the worst of our pallet gardens.  It looks fantastic now!

In contrast to us humans who multi-task, our working animals typically have one pretty specific job.  The sheep grow wool, the goats produce milk, the hens lay eggs, and the pigs and ducks eat. 

Charlie and Ava have arguably the most important job on the farm.  They are guardians.  We expect them to keep the other animals safe.  We love each and every animal we raise, even the ones that we know from the beginning are destined for our dinner plate.  The absolute worst part of farming is losing our animals to predators.   It is heartbreaking. 

This evening Ava and Charlie earned their weight in gold.  They worked together to protect our livestock from a hungry coyote.  Ava barked her "alert bark" to tell me that there was a problem and Charlie ran back and forth between the threat and the goats and Abbott pushing them toward the barn and away from the coyote.  Ava and Charlie gave me time to get the lambs and ewes locked safely in the barn, the pigs and goats put away, and the poultry locked up safe. 

The coyote was much too close for comfort to our back fence line.  It left once I put the livestock away but came back a second time 20 minutes later before leaving for good.  We are going to be on high alert for the next while with our house windows open and all eyes and ears tuned for trouble.

 I could not be more proud of Ava and Charlie for doing their job so well tonight.  Ava got two dog bones at supper and Charlie got an extra scoop of oats.  Team Double D (dog and donkey) for the win!