It's time to start planning 2013 bee & farm season!!

One of the things I learned to love about beekeeping, and farming in general, is that whatever season you are IN, you are actually planning for the following season almost exclusively.

So, in the dead of winter (even though it was 60 degrees today), I was at a beekeeping seminar. YIPPEE!!! And Greg put the candy boards that we made onto the hives this week. I'm feeling very confident about those bee colonies making it past the killer early spring season.

Bag worm? Cut worm? Not sure but the chickens DON'T like them. Could not believe how many of them were in the cocoon when I opened it up.

The LILAC bushes are in full, riotous bloom. It's enough to make your head swim. We have 2 purple and 3 white lilac bushes around the yard...MMMMMmmmmm....LILAC!

See how we grow our potatoes: This is my innovative experiment for this year. Seems like it will work. Wish I could market this one. SO much smarter than the topsy-turvy growing bags!

Hopefully, I will have honey for sale soon at the Cuivre River Farmer's Market, https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cuivre-River-Farmers-Market/213030598783870: Saturday mornings at the Tractor Supply parking lot (9 a.m. - 1 p.m.) in Troy, Missouri (at the corner of Hwy 47 & Lincoln Street, behind the BP station).

Closer views of pollen (note the color-filled cells: each flower/plant has a unique color and the bees sort of preserve that in the hive) and some cells with pupae (see the white-filled cells).

MORE Photos from the weekend. The fancy structure on the right is "Drone Cone" and it's where the males are incubated. The rest of the covered comb is worker bees attending the to babies, cleaning out empty cells, etc.