yaya farm
My friend Caroline arranged for a tour of a small apple farm on Friday. We had a ton of fun – who would have thought an apple farm would have horses, honeybees, and hayrides? (Not to mention homemade doughnuts and cider.)
Here’s a glimpse of our day from my homeschool journal:
September 2. We went to Ya Ya Apple Farm in Longmont for a homeschool tour day. There were 30 families gathered.
We had 2 tour guides; the first one talked about apples.
Some facts we learned: China is the No. 1 apple producer of the world; Washington state produces the most apples in the US (NY state is second); there are 100 varieties grown for commercial sale in the US, and about 60,000 varieties in the world; the oldest producing apple tree was 219 years old. The tree was finally killed by a derailed train.
(Miniature donkeys)
(A cute little girl looking at the donkeys)
Our second guide told us about the Percheron horses, donkeys, and honeybees, with lots of interesting facts as well.
There can be thousands of honeybees in a hive but there is always only one queen; all the workers are female, males are for breeding purposes only; males are killed off before the winter to make sure there is enough food for the worker bees and queen; the workers beat their wings around the queen throughout the winter to keep her and themselves warm; a honeybee’s life cycle is about 2 months, but a queen’s can be about 2 years; bees keep their hives very clean and will not even use the bathroom inside the hive; bees find their way home by the “perfumed” scent of the queen; bees carry pollen on their knees from one plant to another; a honeybee can sting only once, then it dies.
(Honeycomb from the beehives)
The kids had apple cider doughnuts and apple cider from the orchard. They also went on a hayride.
SEEMS LIKE YOU HAD A GOOD TIME. YOU HAVE A GOOD PHOTOGRAPHER ONLY BOO-HOO I ONLY GOT TO SEE A CAMERA AND NOT HIS HANDSOME FACE. THE BEE HIVE STORY WAS VERY INTERESTING TO ME. LOVE GRANNNY