Hess Family: When the dog bites, when the bee stings...

So these past couple months have been crazy busy! On February 20 (my birthday) at 3:30 in the morning Abby went into labor. I was so excited and ready as ever. We had gone to the vet earlier in the week for an X-ray and were expecting 7 maybe 8 pups. To our surprise we had 10! That is a huge litter and it was her first. 7 boys and 3 girls. These pictures are of the boys and girls and a week old, the next one is of my last 4 boys at 5 weeks. It can be difficult to sell an entire litter especially when you have so many boys, but we had them all sold when they were 6 weeks old.

So why did I breed Abby in the first place? As those of you who know me know haw much I love animals and that I wanted to be a vet well not as much as I wanted to be a Mom. So going to school for 7 years wasn't worth it to me but breeding is something I can do at home with the kids and get my animal fix. I spent a lot of time researching the Labrador breed, genetics, and how to be a responsible breeder. These pups were well love and socialized and that is one of the many reasons that they sold so fast. So the money that we made off of the puppies is going to fencing in our back yard to keep the kids and the dogs safe and buying a new puppy to add to the breeding program.

Here she is... Haven't settled on a name yet but we are leaning towards Fancy. She is from Royalty... no seriously she is from the Queen of England's kennel. We will be getting her sometime after the 19 of May.

And now for the bees. I am a firm believer that we are eventually going to have to rely on our trades and talents to survive and well honey is very valuable. Or so I tell myself. ;) Thanks to a brother in our ward I have been able to start my own hive. He has coached me through this and has been very patient.

Here is Zen and I setting up the hive and putting the bees in their new home.

My bees are retarded and aren't building the comb in the right place the are making it on the lid :/ so I get to enjoy some fresh honey every once in a while. Darn it!