Otto Ranch

Otto Ranch Offering grass-fed beef and farm fresh eggs!

Potatoes have been harvested and are curing in the root cellar! 🥔No herbicides or pesticides needed in the garden! If th...
09/01/2026

Potatoes have been harvested and are curing in the root cellar! 🥔

No herbicides or pesticides needed in the garden! If the bugs wouldn’t eat it, then I wouldn’t want to either!

Every once in awhile, the stars align in the worst way on the farm. 😅Today, I had not one, not two, but three bees get i...
08/30/2026

Every once in awhile, the stars align in the worst way on the farm. 😅

Today, I had not one, not two, but three bees get into my bee suit while I was going through hives. I only got stung once though, so, yay me?

At the same time, the cows were on the wrong side of the single strand of electric, and we had just moved them to this new section of pasture yesterday, so Tyler had to go out and get them back in. Turns out the wire broke in the far corner, so I hiked out across the pasture to tie it back together.

Then, after I was done with the bees, I discovered that our goat was stripping bark off one of our apple trees. This is a mature, 30+ year old tree, and he has been in that pasture with the tree on and off for the past three years and never bothered it before, so WHY he decided to chew on it today can only be chalked up to a cruel joke from the universe.

Lastly, I discovered that the deer helped themselves to my green beans, so I strung up some electric fencing to keep them out of the garden.

There are a million things I could/should be doing around the farm today, but after the chaos of this morning, I’m going to stick to the house for the rest of the day. 😅 I’ll try again tomorrow!

Signed, an exhausted farmer.

In the meantime, enjoy this picture I took yesterday of a compass plant in the pasture. It’s a native prairie flower!

Happy cows ❤️
08/29/2026

Happy cows ❤️

Every year I’m annoyed when it’s August and my horse pastures are full of Golden Rod (tall yellow-flowered plants). Well...
08/25/2026

Every year I’m annoyed when it’s August and my horse pastures are full of Golden Rod (tall yellow-flowered plants). Well, this year I have a new perspective on this pesky flower!

Golden Rod is a crucial source of nectar for bees as they begin to store honey in preparation for winter. With the drought this summer, this Golden Rod bloom is going to be especially important to the hives’ survival over winter!

So the next time you are thinking about mowing down your Golden Rod, think twice, and consider leaving it for the bees! 🐝

3 years old and looking studly! 😎
08/23/2026

3 years old and looking studly! 😎

08/21/2026

Moving cows with the hubby! Volume up for happy munching!

The drought this year is unreal. This is only the second time this pasture has been grazed this year. It was rested for about 8 weeks and well… you can see how much grass we have to show for it… 🙃

Just hoping to make it to October before we have to start feeding hay! 🤞

The view in my backyard right now 😍
08/19/2026

The view in my backyard right now 😍

“I needed this,” and it’s literally just me checking on my beehives 🤣I took a long lunch to go through the hives and see...
08/17/2026

“I needed this,” and it’s literally just me checking on my beehives 🤣

I took a long lunch to go through the hives and see how they are fairing. If you’ll recall, I went from 2 hives to 3 hives because one of them swarmed a few weeks ago! Usually when I’m going through hives I just look for eggs as a sign that the queen is active and laying, but today I hit the jackpot and was able to find the queen in all three hives!!!

All in all they are doing well. The blue hive bees are still my best workers (despite the swarm) and they have been busy caping honey for me in two of the supers!

The green hive is still focused on backfilling honey in the brood boxes, but the bees are starting to move up into the honey super and I am feeding them sugar water to try to give them a boost. I was not thrilled to find they started making swarm queen cells along the bottom of the frames (but none had eggs laid in them thank goodness). 😑 Bees practice making queen cells sometimes, but this can also be a sign that they are preparing to swarm, so I spent considerable time hunting down and squashing all of the queen cells I could find!

The new hive (the white hive) is laying eggs and also storing some of the sugar water I am feeding them! That’s about all I expect them to do for the rest of this year, so they’re doing great!

See you next week bees! 🌸🐝

Fixing fence at the rental farm, except, I’m useless 😅 so the boys and I played with trucks and pet cows while Tyler and...
08/16/2026

Fixing fence at the rental farm, except, I’m useless 😅 so the boys and I played with trucks and pet cows while Tyler and Kevin fixed fence!

Adele got her fill of scratches for the week ❤️

Here’s her mugshot 🤣Name: Otto, AdeleS*x: FAge: Old enough to know betterStatus: In custodyCharges: Fleeing a peace off...
08/14/2026

Here’s her mugshot 🤣

Name: Otto, Adele
S*x: F
Age: Old enough to know better
Status: In custody
Charges: Fleeing a peace officer and resisting arrest
Bail/Bond: Hold without bail

Address

Princeton, MN
55371

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