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91
PHOTO PAGE - MEMBER PHOTOS & BEE-MOVIES HERE! / Re: Bees on flowers
« Last post by Terri Yaki on March 24, 2024, 06:10:25 pm »
So when they eat that, do they stick to the same color or do they mix it up? I never mix jelly bean colors, I'm a purist. :cool:
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PHOTO PAGE - MEMBER PHOTOS & BEE-MOVIES HERE! / Re: Bees on flowers
« Last post by The15thMember on March 24, 2024, 05:38:40 pm »
Oooo!  It's so pretty!  I love how a frame of different colored pollen looks like a stained glass window.  :happy:
93
FARMING & COUNTRY LIFE / Re: Lambs have arrived :)
« Last post by The15thMember on March 24, 2024, 05:35:02 pm »
Sheep are about the most skittish of farm animals and I felt like the constant flow of their version of adrenalin through their veins would make their meat more gamy. I have no science to back that up but I had no trouble selling what I didn't use for myself. And to this day, it was the most mild lamb I've eaten.
I don't know about the constant adrenaline, but that is definitely true for an animal you are about to butcher.  It's the main reason (other than just ethics) that you never want to chase an animal before it's killed, because the adrenaline will impart its flavor to the meat, and to a western palate at least, that's not a flavor you want. 

That's actually a little disturbing on a couple of levels, and apparently we define love differently. Only human animals are people, and some of them I have doubts about. I'll just say that I agree quite a lot with Thomas Aquinas when it comes to animals and their treatment rather than get into the philosophy itself.   
I tend to use the word "people" like John Muir did, to refer to anything alive.  Muir referred to animals, plants, and humans as "people", and species of animals and plants, along with different civilizations or tribes, as "peoples".  I have been known to refer to even beneficial bacteria as "guys".  :grin:  It's a little romantic in phraseology, I'm willing to admit, but I always find Muir's writing inspiring, and it's something I picked up from him.  I love animals and nature and always have, and I like how the language reminds me that animals (and plants, fungi, etc.) are all individuals engaged in their own private important ecological business, sort of like humans in society (ideally, anyway).  But my point wasn't that animals and humans are identical and equal, only that our meat animals are treated identically and equally to our other animals and get no less attention or care, either physically or emotionally.  That being said, it's mostly the goats I'm referring to on our farm.  We don't name our meat rabbits, except our breeders.  Since we can't really tell them apart and their time to maturity is so short, it's not really possible to form a relationship with them as individuals. 

My dad's last bull was named Sir Loin but the cows didn't really have names, they were just serfs of the turf.   
 
Hahaha!  That's the best name for bull I've ever heard!  :cheesy:     
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PHOTO PAGE - MEMBER PHOTOS & BEE-MOVIES HERE! / Re: Bees on flowers
« Last post by beelife on March 24, 2024, 05:20:16 pm »
Beautiful!  I bet it's fun to see that blue pollen in the cells though!  :grin:
This is the pollen from Scilla bifolia.
Looks more purple in this image, but two weeks ago was more blue. And I'm pretty sure is the same pollen.
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FARMING & COUNTRY LIFE / Re: Lambs have arrived :)
« Last post by animal on March 24, 2024, 02:38:57 pm »
On our farm meat animals are people too. 
That's actually a little disturbing on a couple of levels, and apparently we define love differently. Only human animals are people, and some of them I have doubts about. I'll just say that I agree quite a lot with Thomas Aquinas when it comes to animals and their treatment rather than get into the philosophy itself.
Mostly I was just joking, but some say that I'm bad at naming things. When I was a kid, I had a dog named Dog. I also had a cat named Booger because of her looks(and a black cat named Smut). Another cat was named OP. Everyone thought his name was Opie, but it was really because I had rescued the little beggar from traffic on an overpass bridge. So his full name was OverPass, and just used his initials. Another cat was named Chow because he acted like a chow hound when first gotten and he had a touch of Siamese as well as other breeds(so chow yoke seemed to fit his stir-fried lineage). Anyway, none of the names I suggested for the kids were acceptable to the wife, so she named them. The kids were later glad of that. :wink:

Maybe a genetic component too ... My dad's last bull was named Sir Loin but the cows didn't really have names, they were just serfs of the turf.   

96
FARMING & COUNTRY LIFE / Re: Lambs have arrived :)
« Last post by Terri Yaki on March 24, 2024, 01:35:32 pm »
Sometimes it is sad, and especially the first time we processed a goat it was really hard.  But that's okay, and it got easier as we got more confident in the butchering process.  And personally, to me it feels so good to eat meat that I know was raised and slaughtered with care and dignity.   
There is no doubt that they have it better than they would through a commercial processing system. And I am not a tin foil hat guy but I am starting to feel like my foods off the grocery shelves might be worse for me than previously thought. When I was raising lambs, I pretty much domesticated them. I invested a good bit of time taming them down. Sheep are about the most skittish of farm animals and I felt like the constant flow of their version of adrenalin through their veins would make their meat more gamy. I have no science to back that up but I had no trouble selling what I didn't use for myself. And to this day, it was the most mild lamb I've eaten.
97
PHOTO PAGE - MEMBER PHOTOS & BEE-MOVIES HERE! / Re: Bees on flowers
« Last post by The15thMember on March 24, 2024, 01:05:41 pm »
:shocked: Bees put paint in their combs and "pollen" in combs is supposed to be healthy?? :rolleyes:
Something like this would usually only happen if there was nothing else for the bees to collect.

I've heard that goats do too. But that would be no surprise.
Why do you say that, Terri?!  Are you one of those racial profilers who believes goats eat tin cans!!  :angry:

:cheesy:  Just kidding.  And goats do love kudzu.  :grin:
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FARMING & COUNTRY LIFE / Re: Lambs have arrived :)
« Last post by The15thMember on March 24, 2024, 12:56:23 pm »
It always hurt on the day I took them away though. There was, and still is, no way I could process them myself.
Sometimes it is sad, and especially the first time we processed a goat it was really hard.  But that's okay, and it got easier as we got more confident in the butchering process.  And personally, to me it feels so good to eat meat that I know was raised and slaughtered with care and dignity.   
99
FARMING & COUNTRY LIFE / Re: Lambs have arrived :)
« Last post by Terri Yaki on March 24, 2024, 12:46:43 pm »
On our farm meat animals are people too.  Just because their lives are short doesn't mean they aren't treated with the same love and care as the animals we keep or sell.  So meat animals on our farm get just as good of names as the sell animals.  We do save the best names for the keeper animals though.  :cool:   
That's the way I was with my pigs and lambs when I had them. It always hurt on the day I took them away though. There was, and still is, no way I could process them myself.
100
FARMING & COUNTRY LIFE / Re: Lambs have arrived :)
« Last post by The15thMember on March 24, 2024, 12:43:00 pm »
Well, this morning dawned beautifully and to new lambs in the barn. Autumn had given birth to twin ewe lambs. Both still wet when I found her, but both up and about feeding well getting their colostrum. Names haven't yet been debated or decided upon.
Oh my word!  That one with the facial marking is particularly beautiful!

my wife never lets me name things .. they look like a Gyro and Kebab to me   :grin:
On our farm meat animals are people too.  Just because their lives are short doesn't mean they aren't treated with the same love and care as the animals we keep or sell.  So meat animals on our farm get just as good of names as the sell animals.  We do save the best names for the keeper animals though.  :cool:   
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