Excitement down the block

On Friday, the rain stopped for the perfect amount of time for us to meet Ollie's honey bees and chickens in his backyard.  Here is Oliver's mum, Ruthie.

The Bachs' honey bees were mailed from New Zealand in this poster tube.  The ends were little white cages for air circulation. Inside, the queen was separate in a wee cardboard compartment.  

The wooden box here is the hive. The bees are in there. What are the three kinds of bees?

What's this for?

Why would Ollie have to use this smoker?

Ollie showed us his dad's bee suit that he wears when he's working with the hive.

The Bachs have kept bees before.  They get delicious honey from them, and, most importantly, they pollinate the trees around us and help new food grow.  Without them, we would go very hungry.

Onto more excitement: THE CHICKENS. 

Oliver holds Lucy upside down. Who knew chickens would let you do that?

Would you believe you can hypnotize chickens?!  Ollie demonstrated for us.  Lucy got very still and mellow just from him placing her on her back on the ground. We didn't hear if he said any magic words to her.  What would you say to a chicken to hypnotize it?

Here is Flappy, their second hen, in the coop.  The third bird is Penguino:

Isn't she gorgeous?

Chicken condo.

The Bachs' hens help the environment by eating food scraps (so less waste); pooping (which is excellent fertilizer for their vegetable garden); and producing beautiful, fresh, free range eggs for their family. Look what the hens laid on Friday!!!

Those colours!  Gorgeous!

Ruthie, Oliver's mum, then produced juice and honey grahams for us.  Bees make honey for the cookies, and they pollinate fruit trees to get the fruit for the juice.  The hens lay eggs for baking cookies.  It's all connected!

Oliver and Ruthie, thank you so much for having us to your backyard, where so much significant environmental activity takes place. 

I love our class of silly chickens.