Honey Hill Farm

04/14/2022

May I introduce you to Tubbs?

🐽 The pronouns are unclear at this time. I didn't ask. Not that it matters.
🐽 Has a soft spot for my uncle Bryan’s belly rubs and Ryan’s right leg.
🐽 Favorite treat: strawberry Poptart
🐽 Despite the strawberry Poptart, that breath be kickin’.

We’ve been togeether for less than 24 hours now, but I love Tubbs so much. Welcome to the useless “farm,” buddy.

09/19/2021

We have the cutest and most delicious eggs for sale:
🥚 $2.50/dozen in a carton
🥚 $2.00/dozen if you bring your own carton
🥚 Feel free to only take a half dozen!

I call these Jerk Chicken Eggs because Midge, the rooster, is an A-hole. These beauties are happy, healthy, and free-range!

Come by anytime today to pickup or after 3pm Monday-Friday. OU campus pickup/delivery is an option, too. Message for details!

07/22/2021

❤️ We have eggs! ❤️

06/27/2021

☀️ Rise and Shine! ☀️
It’s hard to believe the chicks are now chickenagers. 🐣 = 🐓

05/21/2021

The three new baby beehives are finally home! A few of us got to know each other up-close-and-personal on the ride home. 😳 By the time we got home, it was too dark to safely introduce the bees to their permanent boxes. So, the little stingers will have to wait until morning to settle in. Tomorrow we will play. 🐝

05/04/2021

Midge, Maud, Morah, and Mordecai are teenagers now, with teenage attitudes, and quirky personalities. I’m fairly certain that Midge is a friendly rooster. He will keep his name, but we do say it in a really low vocal register now. 🤪

They chickenagers settled into coop life about a month ago. Thanks to my momma for gifting an awesome pen, they are super safe from predators with plenty of room for enrichment until they are ready to free-range part-time.

Enjoy the cuteness.

05/02/2021

We are about one month away from welcoming three (possibly four) new bee hives. I’ve learned so much in the past year and I know there is a lot more to come. Let’s rock this.

Check out the “vintage” manual crank powered honey extractor that we picked up last week. It still has a lot of the original square nuts on the crank! We are eager to clean it up, give it a lot of love, and put it to good use soon.

Also, peep Machete giving me funny looks in the background. 😆

04/24/2021

Bee spotting at Home Depot. 🥰

03/28/2021

We have been impatiently waiting all winter long to open up Hive A and today was finally the day.

It’s been a devastating winter for Oklahoma beekeepers due to last month’s polar vortex. Everyone that I’ve chatted with lost a vast majority of their hives due to the prolonged freezing temperatures. Unfortunately, Hive A met the same fate. 😭 The climate was so unusual for our region and OK beekeepers were not be prepared. We were hopeful, because there were signs of life, albeit weak, at the hive this past month. Apparently, those were just “robber bees” doing what “robber bees” do.

This is the final farewell to experimental Hive A. They worked hard to build fantastic comb and there is still so much honey left in the hive. We will freeze the abundant frames and gift them to three new hives this summer. It wasn’t for nothing. We almost made it. Believe me, moving forward, we will be prepared to keep bees in the arctic circle if we have to.

RIP Hive A.

03/22/2021

Why did the chicken go to Raising Cane’s?

To see a chicken strip! 😬

Yeah, they were not amused either... but look at those adorably judgy tiny faces! The chicks are much more friendly and curious this week. I feel less like Godzilla to them and more like mother hen. 🥰

03/11/2021

The 🐦s and the 🐝s.

Meet Mordecai, Maud, Midge, and Morah. 😁

Send help. They are living in my kitchen, eating like pterodactyls, and growing FAST.

09/06/2020

We have been so fortunate to have a healthy and low maintenance hive during this learning experience that the sight of a single beetle sent me running so fast to Amazon to buy beetle traps. 😄 🐝 ♥️

Parasite prevention is a regular part of our hive maintenance. Here’s a quick video of the hive receiving their regular treatments.

Also, I have to apologize because I just realized this page has been sitting unpublished... even while I’ve been posting updates. I’m sorry - mostly because that means you missed the picture of Ryan’s hairy chest sweater earlier this week! 🤣😂🤣

09/05/2020

This is what hillbilly beekeeping looks like! Our suits have been on backorder since March, so we have to get creative when working. Fortunately, this colony is pretty chill. 😊 🐝

07/05/2020

Week 5-ish. All is well. 🐝 ❤️

06/05/2020

05/30/2020

It’s been 6 days since Colony A moved into their new digs. We popped the lid on the hive this morning to check in and they are THRIVING.

There is noticeably more bees. The brood we saw on the original 5 nuc frames has hatched and there is a lot of new brood. That’s an excellent sign that the colony is growing.

The colony is beginning to build comb on the new frames and they have have accepted their new supplemental feeding source. I noticed new wax and even a little bit of honey. 🤩 It’s happening!

05/25/2020

This morning we opened up our very first nuc and moved a gentle colony of bees into their new home. What an experience!

05/23/2020

It’s time!!!

03/20/2020

Seeds for the first 72 plants were sown today.

Thank you, Toni, for allowing me to take care of your home. The opportunity will allow me to plant more than 150 plants for our future pollinators!

03/17/2020

What a lucky pup! ♥️ Thank you, Gary Hicks!

03/14/2020

Stay the course. Repeat: Stay the course.

A lot of the bee-focused seminars/events I planned to attend this month have (understandably) canceled due to virus concerns and the rain will put a damper on my fencing and garden prep plans this week.

That’s okay! It’s just a detour!

▪️I’m grateful that the rain is quenching the earth’s thirst. I know that the garden and Colony A will be enriched by it;

▪️I can still learn by catching up on reading, researching online, and leveraging social media to connect with other beekeepers;

▪️I love to write. I’ve been working on putting my future plans and goals on paper. This week is the perfect opportunity to refine those ideas and put some of the administrative work around those ideas into action;

▪️BAKING. A lot of pet treats to share with you. A few cookies for me, too; 😊

▪️And most of all: Rest. The universe is screaming at me to do it and to give my own personal colony, especially “Booty” (pictured below), a little attention.

Stay healthy, friends. I hope to have some progress to share with you soon. 🤟

03/11/2020

I hope you had the opportunity to sample some of Honey Hill's homemade natural ingredient pet treats last weekend at the March for Mutt's event! 😊 If you missed out or can't get enough, I'm whipping up a fresh batch that will be ready for pickup/delivery this weekend.

Available in two recipes:
▪️Honey Drizzled Blueberry, Banana, and Peanut Butter Biscuit
▪️Sweet Potato and Carrot Biscuit

To order, complete this short online form (mobile friendly): https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=neB9nDSQwUS0YsRk_s4gShSbResraPlPjnulNHcasNlUNTQ3RTBWMjBBTzBMVFQwQ1FHMUhVMkg2SS4u

All proceeds support the future Honey Hill Farm, Apiary and Animal Sanctuary.

Thank you! 🤟

03/10/2020

Our new residents will arrive in May!

03/09/2020

New BEE-ginnings! 🤓