Abbott Farms - Sustainable Agriculture

My poor, struggling hives not treated for varroa This is the time of year that I spend time farming, not writing about it, so sorry! Today the Canadian wildfire smoke is making it difficult to work outside, so I have time to sit down and highlight a few farm notes from the summer. The picture above was taken the very end of June. It was a very hot day, brooding for storms, NOT the best weather for opening hives. But I could tell these guys needed me to relieve them of some ho

Two new nucs installed 4-24-26 It is always a humbling experience to have to start over in the spring with new nucs. Especially with a new provider who asks,"Have you ever kept bees before?". Then proceeds to give advice different than what I have done for 20 years and seems dismayed that I probably will keep with what works for me. Ah, when I started beekeeping there was a running joke that was voiced at most bee meetings. It goes like this - "If you ask ten beekeepers a que

Yes, there are baby chicks in there, it is just hard to see them! On Tuesday night, April 14, 2026 the tornado siren sounded and our family headed to basement. Our basement is a walk out, so we could watch the storm unfold, constant lightning, howling winds, torrential rain. My kids were following the storm chasers on their phones, and realized there was a tornado less than a mile from our house. When the announcement came that it touched down, our power went out. My son brav

Little Zinnia, last baby of the 2026 season Our last pregnant doe had one single baby girl on the first day of spring, March 20, 2026. Both are doing well! We disbudded Marcie's girls, one on Saturday the 21st, and one on Monday the 23rd. We also disbudded this cutie pie, Zinnia on Monday the 23rd. So before we realized it had started, the kidding season was over and all the kids are disbudded! Our total is two boys and three girls. We will certainly sell the boys. We haven't

Marcie's twin girls, Patty and Violet Marcie wasn't due until March 23rd, so imagine our surprise when we went out to do evening chores on March 16th and found two lovely baby girls waiting for us in the big pen! Although it is unusual for goats to kid that early, they must have been ready because the girls weighed 8 and 9 pounds and are extremely vigorous. Marcie has plenty of milk and is being a good Mommy. She is a first freshener, so you never know how they will do.

Crocus with Bert and Ernie Our first babies of the spring 2026 season arrive on Friday March 13th, a lucky day for us! Crocus had two healthy boys, Bert was nine pounds and Ernie was 10 pounds. Ernie wanted to come out backwards and had his legs bent back, so he needed a little help coming into the world, but was no worse for the wear. Crocus did great and has a lot of milk. We have two more does left to kid, Allium and her daughter, Marcie. Allium is due March 20th, and Marc

Last week's lovely weather in the 60's gave me a chance to open up my hives and see what was going on. I had realized after our extended bout with severe cold that all the hives appeared dead. When it topped 50 degrees and there was no activity, that was a sure sign. Although both the tan long hive and the swarm hive - the vertical hive - had shown signs of life in early January, there was no sign of life when the weather warmed. In the tan long hive, I found debris on the bo

My beehives winter of 25/26 Here are my three beehives. This picture was taken early January 2026. On a snowy day like the one in which this picture was taken I had several clues to let me know if my hives were currently alive. I have found over the course of time, that you can tell for sure if a hive is alive in winter, but you can't tell for absolutely certain if it is dead. My educated guess, however tells me that the one in the middle, the blue long hive is most likely de

The view from my front yard As the season winds down, there are still a lot of things to do on the farm. I checked the bees about a month ago. My rule of thumb is to not take honey after Labor Day. It was just past Labor Day, but I would have collected my last batch if I felt the bees could afford it. But, I did not find honey outside the broodnest of any amount, so I left them as is. I flipped the middle inner cover in my blue long hive. I am still deciding whether to insula

2025 Honey Who would have thought I would get so excited about one quart of honey? Well, it is just a start. And, since I got none in...