What's all the buzz about?

On Friday, we were blessed with a rare occurrence at the farm. It seems that a colony of wild honeybees that live on property outgrew their "digs", and swarmed to find and settle a new colony. To his shock, Mr. P. witnessed the settling of the swarm into one of our apple trees, and not knowing what it was, sounded the alarm that we were being invaded by dangerous insects. A little internet research and a couple of pictures later, we knew what we were dealing with--and it wasn't something out of science fiction or a B-grade horror flick. It was merely a natural occurrence in a healthy ecosystem.

By late afternoon, the "glob" of bees had disappeared from the apple branch--hopefully finding their new permanent home. And we, much the wiser, could sit and reflect on our good fortune to have a thriving population of wild bees to pollinate our fruits, vegetables, and flowers. What a great event to witness--first-hand!

Also, this past week, we were blessed with a whole troupe of baby ducks. Our Rouen momma has spent the greater part of the last month sitting a nest in the nursery barn. On May 12, the little hatchlings began to emerge, and by the 13th, there were a full dozen healthy little peepers. On the 14th, when Mama Duck was sure there were no more arriving, she led the parade of ducklings into the yard. They busied themselves learning to eat bugs--poo piles are GREAT sources, you know--grazing the clover, and playing in a puddle of water, courtesy of the water hose. They are, in fact, adorable, and we look forward to watching them grow into healthy, adult tick-eatin' machines!

Finally, in an occurrence that can only be described as "Biblical", our oldest goat doe, Mia, gave birth to her very first baby at the ripe old age of somewhere between 12 and 14 years old. Quite appropriately, we have named the healthy baby boy "Isaac". Mom and kid are doing well.

UPDATE 5-24-10: Our second mama duck brought us a full brood of babies four days ago. Seems she is an excellent brooder, as all but two of her eggs hatched. That means she successfully hatched 14--yes, that's FOURTEEN--babies! A weak one has disappeared, so now she's down to 13. However, that's a bunch o' babies to look after! Mom is keeping her distance from Mama #1, but I suspect that, evenutally, all the babies will mingle in the soon-to-be-constructed mini duck pond in our yard. It's amazing what one can do with a little black plastic, a few well-placed rocks, and a water hose...