Like many folk we’ve been talking to lately, 2018 came with its own unique batch of challenges. While we had the huge excitement of finally realising the dream and shifting the Homestead to a rural location, adding sheep and quail into the menagerie, witnessing the first births and first beans (hallelujah!), and deciding just how we are going to connect with this cool, new community (that’s a story for another post) those proverbial flies just can’t keep their pesky toes out of the ointment. I guess that’s just living, after all.
But here we are: a clean slate, a new page.
Sage Words, indeed
The Bean Counter couldn’t wait until the calendar clicked over to get started on his resolutions. Our long time followers will know of his absolute obsession with bees; the empathetic among you will resist commenting on our combined lack of success in the art of apiculture. All he wanted for his birthday and Christmas combined was the chance to give it another go now we have fields of clover and more than a few flowers about the place.
Farm Girl’s Ivy (back) and her brother observing proceedings from a distance.
Thanks to the awesome folk at Kirwee Bees, who are all about mentoring the art of beekeeping as well as providing the goods, this dream was much easier than our past efforts to coax into reality. Many visits to the home of Kirwee Bees where he spent happy hours opening hives, identifying the queens, tasting the honey, and indulging in a lot of beetalk followed. The Bean Counter returned from the latest in a rather excited state to report that, 1: his hive was now ready to be delivered, 2: he had had a peek inside and it looked “so cool”, and 3: the queen has been marked with a dob of marker in Liverpool red. As far as The Bean Counter goes, life doesn’t get much better.
The New Hive
Sunday night saw the newest Homesteaders arrive and 2019 will hopefully be lived to the soundtrack of their gentle humming buzz.
One of Queen Kenny’s subjects
Welcome to the Homestead, Queen Kenny (of course!) and squad; you’re one sweet addition to our ranks.
Union Homestead 
Sounds very exciting, all the best for success with the new bees.
Thanks, Susan. We feel very safe in our new venture as Glen from Kirwee Bees kept stressing he could see no problem as was only a phonecall away 😊
Excellent news.
Bees – that will be fun. I hope 2019 is a fantastic year for all on the homestead. Catch up soon xxx
Definitely and right back at you! I have the feeling 2019 has some good stuff in store😊
Happy New Year and best of luck with the bees 😊
Thanks. We’re very excited 😊
I bet 😊
Exciting year to come. We would love to have bees, but my husband is allergic to everything that stings. I am researching growing alternative sweeteners.
We grew Stevia for a while. It was relatively easy to grow and it wasnt that difficult to adjust recipes to accommodate it. A little goes a long way, though!
We do use stevia for our coffee and oatmeal, so we have thought about growing it ourselves. You have encouraged that idea Thanks 🙂
Glad to be of service🤣
Happy New Year and best of luck! Keep us posted.
To you too, Laurie. Thanks, as always, for your enthusiastic interest 😊
I hope that the bees will let you live in a land of milk and honey.
If we could just get Marilyn the goat to co operate 😊
Bees! Wonderful news! My brother has his own small bee empire spread around suburban Melbourne. Noble Park where he lives, Blackburn where a sister lives and most recently Preston, where another brother lives. We look forward to the little pots of gold which he distributes on special occasions. Whilst my brother has European honey bees, some beekeepers have hives of stingless native bees.
Imagine the bliss of your own honey on breakfast crumpets!
Its all very exciting as this time ( our third attempt) we have someone showing us how to do it rather than relying on anecdotes and the internet😊
Yes, there are times when there is no substitute for direct tuition by another human being.
Bees choose their keepers so now must be the bean counters time!
Welcome to the tribe and to the new world of wonder that will open for you all!
A buzzing start to 2019….🐝🐝🐝
We’re certainly buzzing about our new arrivals who have soent the week mapping their new environment. So cool to watch!