It’s Summer’s Time

Turmeric, Chickens, Ducks and Wooster.

I wish that all of you were having the kind of Winter that we are. We have been very fortunate here in Medina County this Winter. I know it’s not over yet, but we’re on the downhill side. We did have some exciting wind yesterday that took out a bunch of trees, even tipped over a couple of semis on the freeway and a lot of folks lost power. But today, back to calm and sunshine.

A couple of years ago we bought a turmeric plant at our local Farmers’ Market. It was a beautiful plant – my main motivation – since then I’ve been reading and hearing a lot about turmeric being really good for you. So Kim decided to ‘dismantle’ this beautiful plant so that we could harvest some of the root. You can see in the photo that it also actually bloomed last Summer and what a beautiful flower it has. I just like the plant. We’re still reading up on exactly what to do with the root and how to process it. We’ll save some and replant also. If you have any suggestions please send them along.

We’ll be getting more chicks in a few weeks. And we’re going to try the Call ducks again. The coop is bigger and the pen will be better protected, so hopefully we can get the ducks grown and keep them in the pen where they are safe. Right now we have 15 hens – five of them are five years old right about now and the other 10 are two years old. I think we’re about to lose one of the old Americanas – she’s really starting to slow down and having a hard time getting up to the perch at night. But she doesn’t seem to be in any pain and is still quite tame with me.

I know some of you are thinking soup pot, but I just can’t do that. They’re essentially pets, although they don’t really have names like Kim tells everyone. Besides they’re mostly feathers. They look real poofy, but when you pick them up – not much meat under all the feathers. So we’ll keep feeding them and loving them until they go naturally.

The Bee Culture Team – minus Editor Kim – was at the Tri-County Beekeepers Conference in Wooster, OH the first Saturday in March. We saw a bunch of you there and we had a great time. Kim was sick with the nasty bug that has worked it’s way all around our department. He hasn’t been that sick in a long time. Thank you to all of you who asked about him and missed him.

The rest of the team, including two new members this year, did an amazing job of making my day easy. We had Jean, our advertising sales person and she brought along her son Jake, who helped out at the table. Amanda and husband, Matt were there – thanks Matt for lifting and toting – and getting me that amazing maple roll. They brought along Anthony, who is one sweet little boy. This is his second big bee event – if you came to our October event last year he was there – and he is amazingly cooperative and agreeable. He only gets a little cranky when he’s hungry – like most of us. It was good to be there and see good friends.