The Birds & the Bees

One of the things about living on a homestead farm with animals is that the opportunity arises (many times, in fact) to have "the big talk" with children about the birds and the bees.  No one is really sure of the origins of that phrase.  Many think that because bees carry pollen and deposit it in flowers, that it is a good example of male fertilization.  Likewise, birds laying eggs is an example of female ovulation.  Who knows?  What I do know is that that discussion can be a difficult one.  I actually bought a book called "Point Man" by Steve Farrar that has a chapter devoted to How to have the talk.  I think it is well done and helped me & Tricia to have "the talk" with our oldest kids.

On the farm, however, reproduction is an everyday fact of life - a normal occurrence that gives "the talk" a natural context.  As a result discussions (about what the animals are doing out in the pasture) can be approached in a matter of fact manner that doesn't need to be couched in a nervous, uncomfortable moment and can be easily transitioned from a talk about animals to one about humans. 

Speaking of that topic, two nights ago, Stryker, our Jersey bull, was moo-ing and moo-ing.  This makes me a little nervous as we do have neighbors and I'd like to stay on speaking terms with them.  I got up out of bed and went and gave him some hay, thinking that perhaps he was hungry.  He ate and all the noise subsided and I went back to bed.

Well, I was awakened right around dawn by more moo-ing and when I went to milk Daisy and Rosie, I discovered that Stryker had knocked down the fence and all four cows were together.  Fortunately, Maggie and Stryker hadn't gotten the milk yet, so I put the fence back up and put Stryker and Maggie back in their paddock.  The reason Stryker knocked the fence down was because Rosie had come back in heat and old Stryker was mighty interested.  We don't know for sure if Stryker bred Rosie, but the probability is pretty high.  We'll know for sure in about 21 - 24 days.

We can't talk about the "birds and the bees" without actually talking about birds and bees, can we?  Something looks odd in this picture, I think.  The Good Book tells us that we shouldn't let the sun go down on our anger...


Looks like someone owes someone an apology.  They're sleeping on opposite sides of the bed and won't even look at one another!

In the garden the other day, the bees were really buzzing around the bok choy that is flowering.  I'm letting it go to seed so that I can capture and save the seeds.  Anyway here are some cool shots of some honeybees doing their job of pollination.

A nice close-up shot!


Honeybee on a bok choy flower