Kelm Family Farms

07/13/2024

There's butterfly moths in our wildflower garden!

05/30/2024

We received a call from a friend about a honeybee swarm someone found at the business park in Plover/Whiting. Once Josie got home for the day we loaded up the gear and jumped in the truck.

This was the first time Joise donned the bee suit and tailed along for a swarm call.

One hour after arriving nearly all the bees were in the box and ready to head to a safe new home!

Shoot us a message if you see a swarm and we will do our best to find an appropriate home for them.

05/05/2024

04/30/2024

All the swarm traps are up! Ready for the natural swarms cast from honey bee colonies that are growing this spring. If you see a honey bee swarm, please don't kill them. Shoot us a message and picture of what you see and we will do what we can to help you find a proper home for them!

04/13/2024

Today is 70 degrees and sunny, and pollen production is just beginning for the year. Our girls are out collecting what they can, and I saw some gathering water in a bucket we set up just for them.

If you want to help pollinators near you, a simple water bucket with wood either floating or propped inside like we do (bees don't swim after all,) can be a huge help that's easy to do!

10/29/2023

Busy day today! Jeff & I processed our pie pumpkins and made 9 bags of puree to freeze. I (Eileen) also tried my hand at roasted pumpkin seeds for the first time, they turned out alright!

Now it's time to plan what yummy things we'll make to eat. Drop your suggestions in the comments!

08/26/2023

Eileen here. Did you know there are over 20 different kinds of snakes that live in Wisconsin? Only a few are venomous, and this little guy tends to get mistaken for a Copperhead.

This is a baby Eastern Foxsnake.

Our dog Journey was barking at something in the yard, so I went to investigate. I knew it was either a mole or a snake (we get lots of hognose snakes here, you can tell she finds them from the smell!) Sure enough, I see a tiny tail slithering & trying to hide in the grass. I got gloves (safety first always, kids) and managed to get the little guy out and into the woods before Journey could get a reptile snack.

These little guys help our environment by eating rodents, ground-nesting birds, and sometimes amphibians. They live in prairies, meadows, and marshes.

It was almost cute enough to keep... then again, maybe not. Still, what a neat opportunity to learn about critters on our property!

08/02/2023

Take a look at Eileen's Donors Choose project to raise funds for equipment to plant seeds and grow different types of plants inside our classroom!

Thank you for your consideration ❤️🌻🪴🌷🌱⚘️🌿

Help me give my students an indoor mini- greenhouse and grow light to be able to learn valuable life skills about how to plant seeds, how plants grow, and harvest the fruits of their labor! I have ...

08/01/2023

Yummy pickles fresh from the farm! We were busy trying something new, so here's some dill and hamburger chips pickles made with home grown cucumber and dill. I'm sure Jeff (a pickle- lover) will be excited to try them once they're ready! Eileen (NOT a pickle fan) will just watch him enjoy the fruits of their labor 🥁🥁📀

10/15/2022

Prove me wrong.

I love both.🤣

05/18/2022

Eileen here: I'm an elementary teacher and we taught all about life cycles earlier this year. We decided to try to hatch chicks, and it went very well! Many chickens hatched, including a bonus (coturnix?) quail!

Well, after doing some research, these birds are sexually mature much earlier than what we're used to, so you can imagine our surprise when putting the littles back into the brooder after their 3rd field trip this week to Jeff finding 3 little eggs in their part of the run!

So now we know Miracle the quail is definitely a girl! How exciting!

05/01/2022

Beautiful ASL storytelling about how bees pollinate followers, watch and see what you understand, even if you don't speak sign language! ❤👋
~ Eileen

04/24/2022

Letting wildflowers bloom in the spring as a critical first food source for pollinators is essential. Dandelions and clover are primary sources of food for pollinators like honeybees, but for so many more critters than that. Please help them out and wait for that manicured lawn!

*Tip: once you do start to cut your grass, when clover has flowered, cutting it again helps to regenerate and flower again to provide more food for critters!

~ Eileen

04/23/2022

Busy bees on a windy but FINALLY warm day. Windy but got up to 80 degrees. Happy spring!!
~ Eileen

03/30/2022

During our false spring, a couple weeks ago, we got a chance to feed the bees a little bit of dry pollen substitute. This is baby bee food that will be used to feed the new spring bees.

08/17/2021

We have babies!! 🐛🐛🐛🐛🐛🐛
We had a BUNCH of monarch caterpillars we were keeping in the house, but we had to travel for a long trip and decided to put them in the garden and let nature take care of them. Well, look what Jeff found! Looks like some of those might be ready to form into their chrysalis soon. I just know the kids are going to try and convince us to grab them, so we'll see. I know my students coming in 2 weeks would love to hatch them too!

08/17/2021

15 # (exactly) of our home grown sweet corn, even with kids (and adults) sneaking tastes. Man, it's good to be home!

If anyone would like some, please let us know and we'll see what we can spare. Our children have finally discovered the goodness that is fresh sweet corn, so who knows how long it'll last 🤣