Kenyan Top Bar Hives... Why we chose this style of hive

Kenyan Top Bar Bee Hive

As we started researching the top bar hive and the long term benefits, we realized that the long term benefits of the top bar hive was congruent with our view of backyard farming.

• Inexpensive: The number one motivation was cost! You can build these completely out of scrap wood. They are designed and developed for third world countries where materials are scarce. You could easily drop close to $1,000 in equipment alone for a Langstroth or Warre type hive. So the Kenyan Top Bar appealed to us in that way. All of the materials to build these 3 hives cost us a mere $20...and we have plenty of spare wood to build more as well!! 
• Little Treatment: You have a reduced dependence on chemicals to treat various mites and hive beetles. 
• Health: The bees build their own comb and cells which allows them to be healthier and resist mites. The bees know better than we do and they sure do know how to build their own comb...so why not let them! 
• Versatility in Design & Size: There is not one set design so you can design and be creative with the construction. There are hundreds of designs out there for how each person prefers their top bar hive to look. Bryan designed and built our hives out of scrap wood which he bought at an estate sale. For $20 he purchased enough old scrap wood to make at least 10 hives (which we don't need 10 hives, but for $20 he decided to buy all the wood!). You can truly personalize these boxes! Bryan designed all of our hives to the same interior dimensions so that comb is transferable in case you want to split a colony. 

There are many benefits and desirable features to the Kenyan Top Bar hive and this is just the surface! Join us on our journey as we discover and research more about this method of bee keeping. 

Hot Hens!! Temperatures are rising Keep those animals cooled off in the summer heat!

Record high temperatures are not a good thing for you backyard herd! Your chickens will be particularly affected by the heat. Be prepared with a few tricks to beat the heat and keep your hens laying you beautiful homegrown eggs. You definitely do not have to do ALL these thing to ensure you do not loose your whole flock, but rotate it up and see what you and your animals prefer.

• Fresh Water!!! First and foremost is WATER!! You will be surprised how much water your animals will consume on those hot days! Keep their water fresh and cool. I even toss in ice cubes and it will have my animals complete attention! Curiosity will bring them to the water bucket and everyone will get a fresh cool drink! Freeze ice blocks to help keep the water cooler longer. 
• Chilled fruit and veggies! Cut up veggies and fruit, toss them in the freezer and have a lovely afternoon treat for your animals. Focus on fruit and veggies that are high in water content. My girls love frozen or chilled tomatoes and watermelon. On the crazy hot summer days I collect any damaged or dropped tomatoes from the garden first thing in the morning and instead of tossing them to the compost pile, I take them inside to chill for a few hours. 
• Water frozen in pop bottles and milk jugs. Lay the bottles outside in your animals favorite afternoon shade tree spot and you will find their popular location will become even more popular as the bottles will help cool the area! Clean off your bottles at night and refreeze them...keep a good rotation of clean bottles! 
• Shade! Make sure they have plenty of shade access!! If you are concerned about them having enough shade, try covering an area with a tarp to provide more shade...just don't make it a blanket that cuts off their air circulation!
• Misters. We do not have misters for our girls (yet) but this is one way to cool the air by several degrees. Our hens do not run for cover when it rains so I think they would enjoy the misters. We want to set up some misters on a timer so we don't end up with a mud pit. Also we need to rotate the mist so our goats can still enjoy the yard...goats hate rain and hate being sprayed with water!! 
• Fans. Place a fan right outside their fence and help get air circulation!
• Ice packs! Those little nest boxes can get extremely hot...especially if your coop is in the sun part of the day. Chickens LOVE to dust bath and this will help cool them as well. If your flock are big fans of this, try tucking a few ice packs in the sand where they dust bath...just keep an eye on them and make sure they don't try to peck away and tear open the ice packs. Clean off your ice packs at night and refreeze them...keep a good rotation of clean packs! 
• Flat bucket of water for them to walk through to cool their feet and legs...some chickens may walk, some may lay down, and other might just think its for drinking. 

These are just a few ideas of what you can try. Let me know what works for you and your animals!

Henry and Addie milking away!

Life is truly different now that our goats are in milk. Twice a day, no matter what, we have to be out milking the goats! The sun rises and the girls start getting eager for their milk pressure to be relieved. If we are running late they will be beside our bedroom window with a little wake up call! Thankfully Henry and Addie are extremely eager to milk the goats and so they are our morning wake up call! 7:00am rolls around and we hear little feet running up and down the hallway, they are quickly getting dressed and waking us up. After Im finally up and around, the kids grab the milking supplies and we head out to our very anxious goats. The evening routine is pretty much the same and we try to milk about 6:00pm at the latest, mainly because we figure all of our neighbors are eating dinner about that time and we do not want the girls "screaming" while the neighbors are trying to enjoy their meal! About 5pm Henry and Addie start getting excited to milk and it is a good reminder for me to get all the milking supplies cleaned and ready. Then we head out for the evening routine!

We have been milking these girls for several months now and we are all adjusting quite well. As soon as the goats gate opens they are running for the garage quickly followed by Henry and Addie who are eager to do all the work! (Yes, they are eager to work...and Yes, I have heard many many times that their eagerness to work will fade with age...but Hey, let me enjoy this small window in time and hope that maybe just maybe they will always be this eager to wake up early and milk goats, collect eggs, and weed the garden!!). They get the first goat all set up on the milking stand and off they go! Since we first started milking the girls, Henry and Addie have been eager to learn. And honestly their little hands are perfect for the milking of the small goats! We would occasionally let the kids try to learn (mostly on Peaches because Poppy used to get a little temperamental when the kids would try to milk). Then about a week ago, we were out milking and George suddenly needed a serious diaper change...no waiting around on that one! So I asked Henry if he could milk all by himself (something he has constantly told me he could do) and he said "Yep!"...I figured that the worst thing that could happen would be all the milk would get dumped. Well, I ran inside and changed George (diaper and clothes...yes moms, it was one of those diaper changes!) and by the time I came back out Henry was almost done! I couldn't believe it!! He really could do it all by himself. I thought we were at least a year away from the kids milking alone. From that point on we have let the kids do most of the milking. They are surprisingly quick! Peaches is great with the kids, but Poppy is still a little hesitant to let them milk her...but before long Im sure she will be fine too! 

Here is a little video of the kids in action!

New Homestead Roots YouTube Channel

Homestead Roots on YouTube
I have so many videos that I want to share with you all and so I thought it was about time I took the plunge and started a YouTube channel. I only have a few videos uploaded right now, but hopefully our channel will grow and I will be able to show you a whole new side of our little homestead!
Enjoy!!