Every day seems to be gaining ever more momentum toward summer. I took extra time this evening to appreciate the new flowers, the new bits of green popping up everywhere, and the wooly creatures who will be freed of their heavy winter fleeces in the next week or so.

The apple trees are starting to leaf out.

This broody hen is very unhappy that I keep taking the eggs from under her.

The other day it was so sunny and warm that it seemed like a perfect excuse to open up the beehive and see how they were doing.  I wanted to check for any indications of swarming (nothing this time) and see if i could find the queen, or, at the very least, signs that she is doing her job.

Now, when you crack open a hive and start pulling frames to check everything, you want to be as quick and efficient as you can, so as not to disturb the bees more than necessary.  This has been a challenge for me, because I just love looking at their work, and I think I move quite a bit slower than I should. By the time I get to the last box to check, they are pretty pissed at me!

But how can you not stop and marvel at their work!

The good news is that although I didn’t spot the queen, I did see plenty of eggs and larvae (if you look close in the pic above, you can see the blurry white in the bottom left cells – larvae!), which means she is there, and she is active.

I also spotted many, many bees returning to the hive laden with bright pollen. With all the spring flowers in bloom, it’s a honeybee smorgasbord!  I’ll be adding a queen excluder soon as their production of honey kicks into high gear.

In the meantime I’m keeping an eye out for possible swarm activity.  If it happens, I have a whole empty hive waiting to become a second colony.

After checking the bees and putting my gear away, a neighbor stopped by to talk about llamas 9she knows someone trying to re-home three….so very tempting!), and as she was leaving she told me how much she loves our place, and that it’s everything she wants.  It was such an amazing compliment, and all I could say was “me, too”.

Here’s to a beautiful spring and summer to come!

Hopefully you are all having a lovely and relaxing Sunday.  The weather here is beautiful, if windy, and the kids are about due to crash from their sugar largesse left by the bunny.

I am enjoying the newly blooming flowers and the pea plants which have begun to sprout.

But the BIG news we are happy to share is that Wembley the wonderlamb has made a full and complete recovery.

When I found her downed several weeks back with a thiamine deficiency, we were pretty worried.  When we brought her home from the vet that evening, we were unsure how she’d do through the night.

She lived in my tub for two weeks before I felt like I could move her out to the sheltered front porch.  But after a few days I was still pretty worried. She was still crooked, and could barely stand on her own. When the nearly three week mark hit and she was walking sideways, unable to lift her head completely, I was really worried. But then, suddenly one day, she decided she’d had enough, and walked around the gate and off the porch.  I took her down to the other lambs (lots of bleating was to be had) and worried yet again how she’d do through the night.

But now? Holding her own at the feed trough and hay bale. Walking straight, no head tilting or any indication of illness other than being a bit skinny still.

The only difference between her pre-illness self and now is that she got used to us being her food-bearers, and consequently is very friendly and cuddly now.

I’m pretty comfortable calling this turn around nothing short of miraculous.