We had a saying when I was in the Army, commonly referred to as the “Five P’s”: Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance”.  Last year I was unable to plan ahead because I didn’t know I would have my small homestead.  This year, however, I have plenty of time to do the best job I can do.  After all, isn’t the goal to get the best crops out of your farm?  It’s easy to wait until the last minute to decide where to focus your energy when you run a farm.  Big or small, your farm has many things that will be going on this year and waiting until April to start planning is going to put you behind the curve on most of it.  It wouldn’t be the end of the world, but getting set on your priorities now and doing a little planning is going to save you a lot of headache in the long run.  Me, I have several pots in the fire, so I am trying to figure out where I would like to excel this year so I don’t end up sucking at all of them.

My bees seem to be the most fun for me.  I know many people are going to say the garden should be the most important, and it is important, but I feel like the bees are more productive and could possibly supply a little extra income this summer when they start producing hundreds of pounds of honey (hopefully). We are planning to add at least 4 more hives, and as many as 9 more.  That is a significant increase in the amount of time it is going to take to make sure they are all healthy and happy this summer.  I am not in the business of buying hundreds of dollars of equipment and living organisms just to watch them run away or die because of my negligence.  That being said, I have a few things to get going on.  I will need to treat my current hive next month for mites.  Mites are a serious threat to your honey bee hives, so staying on top of your mite treatment is very important so they can emerge strong in the spring.  You should also be checking your hives to make sure they are stocked up on food.

Obviously, you don’t want to get in there and start pulling out frames when it is really cold.  If in doubt, toss a slab or two of bee fondant on top of the frames. If you are looking for a simple solution, Priddy Acres offers a very easy to use fondant (made by the beautiful Michelle), found on our Products page. It won’t hurt anything to have the fondant on there and you can monitor the slab(s) to see how fast the bees are gobbling it up, as a gauge of their winter stores, without having to pull the hive apart.  Also remember that there will be a lot of dead bees out in front of the hive.  During the winter, lots of the bees die off and they won’t die far from the hive (some will die in the hive, too, and are cleaned out by the other bees when the temperature warms up).  I know it looks like bee Armageddon out in front of my hive.  I really want to get in there and make sure they are ok, but it is only around 34 degrees, so it isn’t a good idea to start pulling frames out right now.  The bees should all be clustered up around the queen down in the brood box to keep her warm, so I really shouldn’t be seeing bees messing around up in the top of the hive on cold days (i.e. less than 50 degrees F).  If they were all dead, there really isn’t anything I can do about it right now anyway so it’s best to just leave them alone until it warms up a bit.  I also have some equipment (hives, supers, frames, etc.) my Dad gave me that I need to get painted and put together so they are ready for bees in April and I need to order my bees so I don’t end up running out of time to order.  Additionally, I need to set up a “rack”, for lack of a better term, to set my hives on so they are easier to access.

I have thought quite a bit about it and there are some considerations that weren’t present last year. First, I will need the southwest field for parking when we have the wedding, so I can’t put my bees over there.  I don’t want my guests messing with them, I don’t want the bees messing with the guests, and I don’t want to have to move them in the middle of the flow.  That being the case, I think I will be building the rack at the north end of my garden area in the southeast field.  This has several benefits.  It will give the bees close access to both my garden and to water in the summer, the land is relatively flat from east to west and I can use the tractor to flatten it out if needed, it is close to my garden shed and greenhouse so I can store my hive tools in there for close access, and the garden is in a relatively secluded area from where most people would congregate on my property. This brings me to my next consideration, the garden.

Last year was a complete bust for the garden.  We had a deer that decimated our crops, weeds that got out of control very quickly, and a watering system that was inadequate.  I think I have figured out how to control the deer issue.  I won’t post my remedy yet, because I haven’t verified that it actually works, but if it does, I will let you guys know.  I refuse to be one of those guys that posts stuff that sounds legit without actually testing it first.  The internet is a safe haven for misleading and dishonest information, so rest assured that if you see it here, I tried it and have empirical evidence which supports the hypothesis (…sorry, I science nerded out for a second there: it means “I tried it and I seent it work!”).  Michelle intends to stay on top of the weed issue, which is really only an issue for the more water and nutrition needy plants (for example, corn).  Our tomatoes, kale, lettuce, cucumber, and broccoli all grew great.  Everything else, not so much.  I blame a lot of that on the fact that we started late, from seeds, and had a torrential downpour the day after we planted.  The seeds got spread all over the place, the birds ate a lot of them, and it just ended up being a mess.  This year we will do better!  I will be making a map of our tentative garden layout, we will be planting as much as possible from starts rather than seeds, and we will be doing our best to drive off the pests which hurt production last year.  The last thing on my list of continuing activity priorities (not my one off stuff, like remodeling the wood shed into a reception hall) is my blacksmithing.

The blacksmithing shop and my skill as a blacksmith have drastically improved over the past year.  Even so, there are a lot of things I need to keep doing.  I need to make several tools and quit taking up a bunch of time making swords and axes, though those are fun.  I need an engraving set, so I will be making that for both small intricate work and larger metal carving work.  I need several hardy hole tools, several specialty hammers, more tongs, and a few other odds and ends.  With all that in mind, once I finish the Damascus Steel frow that I want to make for my Dad, I will be concentrating on making more tools.  One that I want to make before I finish any more stuff is a touchmark.  The touchmark is a tool that blacksmiths use to put their signature on the things they make.  It is basically a stamp for metal which shows who made the item. So, there you have it. My plans for the rest of the winter!

With all of these things that we have going on, we don’t want to forget to take time off to unwind.  Play some video games (I’ve been playing Diablo 3), go on a date, watch some movies, or do some puzzles.  Basically, whatever will keep you sane through the summer months where you have your 9 to 5 job, then come home to several hours of homesteading work.  It’s easy to get burnt out in a few short weeks, so you need to head that off before it starts. Make a plan and execute!  Just remember, if you start having a bad day, remember how much of a bad ass farmer you are and go back to being awesome.