Bee poop, duck outing and something small and green

Yesterday was sunny, but cold and windy. I think it's finally supposed to warm up this week. Yesterday's high was around 7C. I spent a couple of hours cleaning up my vegetable garden and communing with Sophie, the ducks and the chickens.

Despite the cold, I saw a lot of honeybees out foraging on dandelions. Here are the girls backs at the hive:

The orange blob in the centre is pollen stuffed in a bee's "pollen basket" or corbicula. They have one on each hind leg. The crap all over the hive is... crap. They had quite the poo-fest this spring. Bees will not defecate in their hive, so when the winter ends, they go out and have a big dump-o-rama. Honey bees are susceptible to nosema, which can give them bee diarrhea. I do treat my bees in the fall (and sometimes spring) for nosema, but it looks to me like they may have gotten it anyway. Yellow stripes of poop =  the bee runs. But I've looked in that hive and everything seems fine. In fact, it's booming and I've added a third brood box with plans to split the hive soon.

I am always happy to see the girls out foraging on a sunny day.

The Muscovy ducks were out enjoying the sunshine too, while I kept an eye on them from the veggie patch:

Here's Oedipus. He got his name because, well, he humps his Mama.

Sophie was hanging out with me the whole time, but Tristan stayed up by the house, sleeping in the sun.

Oedipus is my only all-whit male Muscovy.  He thinks he's pretty hot stuff.

He had a long bath and preening session yesterday.

"I need to look good for the ladies. And my Mama!" His Mama is Eugenia, the duck who was attacked by a fox last month, and had her leg broken. She's doing really well now! My splint worked wonders and she's pretty much back to normal. I remain amazed that I didn't cripple her for life.

Sophie likes to hang with me and the ducks.

And look what's coming up:

I weeded and mulched the asparagus patch yesterday and am hoping to have some to harvest soon. I put this pic on my Facebook and immediately received a couple of lewd comments from some male friends! :)

Hope you are all having a happy weekend.

PS: Tomorrow is the last day to enter the giveaway on Gordon's law blog. Check it out.