While it has been hot with little rain we have had various successes through the first part of the year. Timberstands are looking health, wild life numbers are up including Quail populations. It will be sometime before we can tell what impact the heat has on acorn and other forage production. It may have an impact on over wintering wildlife. Preditors seem to be in balance this year over previous years to other wildlife. Turkey population is down from previous years however that could be impacted by heat and they are remaining in lower areas of draws. Lack of water has some led to some wildlife dens being abandoned for areas closer to the creeks. Farm production has been slow the heat as stressed most of the fruiting trees. We have started a transfer from package bees from the south to generating our own queens. While we lost 4 hives out of 8 all of the southern packaged bees did not make it through winter. Our locally generated hive splits surved and thrived. I do not expect to have much honey production going into 2019 as we are going to split the existing hives to get back to full capacity in the Spring 2019. Hope you enjoy this look into farm life at Autumn Oaks Farm. For those who are curious the photos are all from PhotoKat Studios.