An old saying goes, "A swarm in May is worth a load of hay."

On Saturday, a swarm of honeybees left one of Howell Farm's hives and settled on a nearby tree branch overhanging the creek. (Bees swarm when their colonies are doing well and they've run out of room for honey and new workers.) Fortunately, swarms are very docile, as the bees gorge themselves on honey before leaving home. Farmer Gary placed an empty hive beneath the swarm -- halfway in the creek -- climbed a ladder, and sawed off the tree branch until the swarm settled into the new hive. After giving the swarm some time to settle, he moved the hive a few miles down the road to the location of Howell Farm's workshop. The idea behind moving the swarm away from the old hive is that the bees will get used to their new home--they can become confused if their new hive is too close to their old hive. After a few days, once the swarm is acclimated, the hive will be moved back to Howell Farm.

This Saturday is Howell Farm's corn planting program. It is said that you can plant corn when the oak leaves are the size of squirrel's ears.  This photo by Intern Virginia is of the small tree by the picnic area.

As discussed a few weeks ago on this blog, Farmer Rob planted both sprouted and green sprouted potatoes this year. The photo on the right shows a green sprouted potato, which we hope will be ready for harvest a little sooner this year.

The weeder works the top inch of soil removing superficial weeds, while sparing oats planted 2 inches deep. (photo by Virginia Perry Unger)

After covering the potato seed pieces with the plow, the field was rolled to crumble the soil and press down the furrow slices.  The next step was harrowing twice with the spike tooth harrow, pictured here.  This step levels the field to make cultivating less bumpy, and will be repeated in a week to uproot superficial weeds.  The harrow works about 2 inches deep over potatoes planted 5 inches deep.

Spring plowing continues... Intern Virginia guides the plow through this year's cornfield.

Thanks to the help of a crew of volunteers on Saturday, the potatoes are in. The wooden post in the photo above marks the line between the Yukon Gold potatoes Farmer Rob green sprouted and the Yukon Gold potatoes that were not green sprouted. The question we hope to answer is rather straight-forward: Does green sprouting potatoes lead to a better or earlier yield?

The tub yard's handsome new gate has been hung with care. Ever since, the horses have been sniffing at it with curiosity, perhaps to determine whether it will be good to nibble on, or perhaps contemplating whether it can be opened by a horse.

A close inspection of the recently planted field of oats reveals that yes indeed, the oats are up and looking healthy.

These oats will feed the very same horses that helped plant them.