All Hail The Pouty Poultry

Resting chick face. It's a thing. Look it up.

You are loved just the way you are. Even if you have perpetual grump face. (Especially if you have perpetual grump face.)

The only approval you need is your own. Vive la grouch!

---

Here’s What’s Happening At Good Spirits Farm

Would you believe it if I told you the chicks are all grown up?? We’ve moved them out of the broodinator into a rolling coop to integrate them with the rest of the birds. Aside from the guineas being big, loud bullies, the chicks are thoroughly enjoying their free-range teenage time.

I’ve also decided that Ruthie probably needs to live out the rest of her chickie days in a separate little coop to keep bullies at bay and limit how much she moves on her bad leg. She gained a friend (a chicken named Bumble, who also has mobility issues), and the two are cruising around the yard in our second alumnum rolling coop.

Whenever I bring out snacks—like these Doritos that were past their prime—I make sure to make a stop at Ruthie and Bumble’s coop. Everyone deserves snacks!

The big news is that our honey harvest for the year is complete! This is always a huge task, although I will say that not being pregnant—as I was last year—made this year’s harvest so much easier.

For new readers, a little history: The bee operation was always my ex-husband’s empire. When he moved off the farm, he left his hives, and I got a crash course in trying to keep bees alive. This was my third honey harvest where I’m the expert in the room, and I finally feel like I know what I’m doing.

We ended up harvesting from 11 of our 12 mature hives. The hive we didn’t harvest came out of winter struggling. I thought they might catch up, but when I inventoried their honey cache, I just didn’t feel like they had enough to share. I’m a risk-averse bee keeper, and I know others might harvest anyway, seeing a struggling hive as one that is worth letting die—survival of the fittest and all that.

I, however, am a sucker for second chances. If a hive just needs a little time to get back in its groove, so be it. Heck, I’ve needed many second chances over the years.

After two full days hauling hive boxes full of honey, carefully removing the wax caps on the comb, spinning the honey out of the comb, filtering it, and then scrubbing the sticky off of every square inch of our honey processing gear, we had 20 beautiful gallons of honey ready for bottling.

Currently, I don’t plan to ship any this year—I just don’t have the bandwidth for printing labels, trips to the post office, etc. But I’m hoping to return to shipping honey next year!

Man, oh man, do I relish this sight! A year’s worth of work coming out of the spout!

---

Here’s What I Loved This Week

We are being inundated with cherry tomatoes from the garden, and this recipe for feta baked with chickpeas and cherry tomatoes is the best I’ve found for using them up. Throw it in the oven, cut up some crusty bread, make a quick salad, and feast.