Today we divided our bees into two. We took one whole box of bees and brood but no queen and placed it on a new hive stand. that box of bees will be given a new queen in a day or two. The old colony has had honey supers to it and it will be our honey producer this year. Now we need a good source of flowers to kick start the honey season.The chicks are getting big and are nearly ready to move to their coop.
Plants have been transplanted and are nearly ready to get in the garden.
More in a few days.
Despite a loooong winter, we are gearing up for spring. Tomatoes and peppers are about 2 inches tall and perennial flowers, herbs, onion, and broccoli are planted in trays. Cucumbers, squash, and melon will be started in about three weeks to give them a jump start on the season.
Erin, Jon, and Ceili finished maple syruping last night with just shy of two gallons of finished syrup. Jon plans on building a wood burning evaporator for next year so that he can more efficiently evaporate the syrup. He spent alot of time working with propane this year. 
Erin and Ceili decided to get chickens this year. Jon and Doug worked for two weekend days to salvage the materials from an old tree house and build our new 4X6 chicken coop. It is fully insulated and has three nesting boxes with an access door from the outside for collecting eggs. The ladder style roost is removable for cleaning. Inside, the coop is finished with fiberglass panels to make cleaning and disinfecting easy. All material, including the two south facing windows and roofing, are salvaged from other projects from other projects. The total bill to this point is around $150.00 for finish, fiberglass panels, and wiring. Jon has to build a chicken door, add latches to all the other doors, and finish the outside with a clear stain.
