Windle Family Farm & Apiary

Windle Family Farm & Apiary Just a small homestead in SE Ohio, seeking to educate and inspire with this beautiful lifestyle. We are a very small family farm located in wellston Ohio.

We currently offer vegetable starts seasonally but hope to expand in the future to offer more products, from our family to yours!

I haven’t posted on here in SO long, but rest assured I’ve been out here living my best farm life. Among some of the man...
05/30/2024

I haven’t posted on here in SO long, but rest assured I’ve been out here living my best farm life.

Among some of the many changes I’ve made, one thing I’ve been working on this past year is to really improve my flock, specifically to add new colors and different genetics for current colors I have. This is just one of the batches from one of the farms I’ve been sourcing from, but these are by far my favorite! There is NO color adjustment on these eggs, just pure natural beauty!

If you’re in Ohio and looking to do the same I can’t recommend my friend over at Under His Wings Homestead enough. I have hatched many eggs over my 10 years of raising chickens, and hers are by far some of the highest quality ive had, not to mention the owners are such wonderful people!

Homesteaders support homesteaders. 💚

These are called "nopes" in my book, but if you ask Google they're the flower crab spider (L) and the yellow garden spid...
08/29/2023

These are called "nopes" in my book, but if you ask Google they're the flower crab spider (L) and the yellow garden spider aka orb weaver (R).

I have never seen the crab spider before, but the orb weavers make their appearance in my pepper bed every year. Even though I don't care for spiders, or bugs in general, I'm glad they're here. Bugs in my garden means I'm doing something right. 💚

My farm hand went to pre-k today, feels so quite and empty here without her singing while we do chores. She was excited ...
08/28/2023

My farm hand went to pre-k today, feels so quite and empty here without her singing while we do chores.

She was excited which makes it easier, but mind your business if you see me out today! 🤣🥲

08/25/2023

Watching the girls fly in this morning. Each morning, scout bees leave the hive in search of good foraging sources. Honeybees forage for nectar, but they also forage for water and plant/tree resin, to make propolis (bee glue). They return to the hive with information on the most abundant sites, sharing this information with other bees standing by. Scouts and forager bees use a series of dances called waggle dances to share precise locations about these sources.

It's already 75 degrees but I think we're about through this heatwave we've had. Yay! If there's one thing we've got in ohio it's humidity and I am not a fan.. Oh and corn we've got corn lol.

Have a great day everyone!

Go ahead and put this one down on your seed list for next year's garden..Mexican Red Torch sunflowers, AKA Tithonia. The...
08/24/2023

Go ahead and put this one down on your seed list for next year's garden..

Mexican Red Torch sunflowers, AKA Tithonia.

These are an attractive pollinator loving annual, growing on average 5' tall (I'm 5' 6") with vibrant 2-3" flowers that are native to Mexico and Central America. They are both beautiful and easy to care for.

Also equally amazing, it is commonly used as fodder for ruminants and rabbits, with the leaves, soft branches, and flowers of the plant being the primary food source. It's also a great nitrogen fixer for the soil.

I have grown these for several seasons and they never disappoint. I don't recommend putting them in raised beds as they take over completely and often fall over with the softer soil. They're easy to save seeds from but be careful because the spent flowers are sharp and rough on the fingers.

Here's some more in depth information https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/mexican-sunflower-tithonia-rotundifolia/ and here's the link where I bought my seeds https://www.rareseeds.com/sunflower-mexican-red-torch

Cleaning up some of the pictures out of my phone and wanted to share these with ya'll, but first I want to say I don't k...
08/23/2023

Cleaning up some of the pictures out of my phone and wanted to share these with ya'll, but first I want to say I don't know what I photograph more my kids or my garden. 🫣

Anyway, in relation to my last post about sowing carrots I think it's equally as important to know how to save seeds from your carrots.

So if this is something you wish to do, and I highly encourage it, that you prepare to buckle up cause it takes awhile. Two years of growth to be exact.

So you sow the seed. The carrot germinates and grows, then instead of harvesting it you leave it be. Next spring it will set off and grow tall, looking very similar to Queen Anne's lace, and start producing seeds from those flowers around mid summer. You'll let these do their thing until they turn brown and rub off very easily. This is when they're ready for seed saving.

I just take a sandwhich bag, stick the whole seed head into the bag, and rub off all the seeds. Label. Pull out the carrot root. Done.

This will save you a lot of mula on your seed bill as these little guys don't go far if you sow heavy like me. Not to mention most seed companies can be stingy with certain "fancier" varieties like Dragon, Pusa Asita, Black Nebula, etc.

I needed to see this. It has a been a trying last couple of weeks for me mentally but when it comes down to it we are so...
08/22/2023

I needed to see this.

It has a been a trying last couple of weeks for me mentally but when it comes down to it we are so much more blessed than we feel or think. Sometimes when the shimmer and shine fade, we forget that at one point we prayed for what we have now.

It's not even noon and already 83 degrees with 66% humidity 😮‍💨 but I still believe we've got an early fall coming!This ...
08/21/2023

It's not even noon and already 83 degrees with 66% humidity 😮‍💨 but I still believe we've got an early fall coming!

This morning in 4 large beds we sowed our carrots for fall. I use a small hand tiller to loosen up the dirt, a rake to even the soil, and then a piece of a board to create little trenches to hold my seed. I sow heavy and I do not cover with any dirt.

Last year was my first attempt for fall carrots, and I didn't get them sowed until late September which was apparently way too late for my area.. But that's ok, cause you can't expect to reap the rewards if you never take the chance. In all the years i've gardened I can tell you that a beautiful productive garden is just the result of many hard learned lessons.

Here's some of my tried and true varieties including some new from Renee's Garden Seeds. Haven picked these out specifically. Their packages are packed full of helpful information all while displaying elegant artwork.

Pretty eggs won't change what's inside the egg, but it sure does make it more motivating to go clean nesting boxes. Thes...
08/19/2023

Pretty eggs won't change what's inside the egg, but it sure does make it more motivating to go clean nesting boxes.

These are just a few of my beauties from my ladies that came all the way from Alchemist Farm & Garden last year. They're some of the healthiest birds I've ever owned, and have the sweetest temperaments to boot. You can tell Franchesca puts so much love into her farm and what they do. I've been so privileged to share these eggs with my community and pay her generosity forward.

*enclosed run* *rabbit barn* *waterlines through the entire property*☺️
08/19/2023

*enclosed run* *rabbit barn* *waterlines through the entire property*☺️

Day 1563 of growing Brussel sprouts.. feels like it’s been an eternity 😅
08/19/2023

Day 1563 of growing Brussel sprouts.. feels like it’s been an eternity 😅

08/18/2023

Zinnias are easily one of my favorite flowers. They’re so simple to grow, bloom just about all season long, come in a wide variety of colors/patterns/shapes/sizes and they are a pollinator MAGNET!

This is a male eastern tiger swallow tail. Females may be either yellow or black, making them dimorphic. The yellow morph is similar to the male, but with a conspicuous band of blue spots along the hindwing, while the dark morph is almost completely black.

Here’s some pretty neat facts about them if you’re nerdy like me 🤓 https://www.animalwelfareissues.com/six-fun-fascinating-facts-of-the-eastern-tiger-swallowtail-you-didnt-know/

Address

Wellston
Hamden, OH
45692

Telephone

+17407072267

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