Connecticut Sheep and Wool Fest

The CT Sheep and Wool Festival was a lot of fun! It was busy and I enjoyed myself.

The fleece sale netted me a few fleeces. I especially loved the Lincoln fleece I got, the locks are amazing ans I have some great ideas for it.

A customer had this bag that I loved! Gave me some ideas and inspiration!

One thing I really was hoping to get was a one yard Niddy Noddy! Thankfully my friend Reggio showed up and did some shopping guide for me!!! 

Some of the treasures I got at the festival! Honeybee stitch markers and an Angora needle sorter! Overall the fair was fun and we were blessed with a beautiful day! Onto getting busy for the November show, I'm taking some time off for now!

We're heading to the Fair!

This Saturday, April 29, 2017 we're heading to the fair! The Connecticut Sheep and Wool Festival to be exact! We will have some handmade items... 

as well as some fiber supplies! Stop by our booth and see us! For more info visit their website below for directions and times of the ongoing events for the day!

http://www.ctsheep.org/sheep_wool__fiber_festival

Baby Buns!!!

The English Angora babies are getting so big! They are hiding in their nest so I can't see them. There is only 3 that survived. I have found that first time moms don't do great for their first litters. We have 2 fawns and 1 chestnut agouti like their Uncle Chester!

Eyes are finally open!!!

Look at how fat and healthy they are! Peachy has done a great job on these little ones! Maybe Peachy doesn't like being an angora but she is a great mom!

Apiary news

In this old picture of our Apiary, it was more peaceful times. Never having to worry about more than the normal concerns of beekeeping. The challenges are so much more than what they were over 20 years ago.

However, our biggest challenge now is a bear! Last year we lost all our hives to a bear. Just weeks after having two hives, then having family commitments that put us behind on installing the bear fence, once again he hits! Thank goodness we had hatchet straps on them. Those were some ticked off bees when I attempted to upright the hives.
Fortua

Release of the Queens!!!

Yesterday I quickly suited up before dinner time and while the foragers were out and about. I was checking on the queens, to see if the workers had gotten them out of their queen cages. One was released but the other was still in hers. They had waxed the entire cage and sealed off any space they had to feed her! I used a screw I had in my pocket and went to releasing her into a queen marker cage. She gladly entered it.

I then marked her with a white dot! Even though this year queens should be marked with a yellow dot, I firmly refuse!!! Who in their right mind choose yellow for marking queens for this year?!!!! With all the pollen coming in, all the different shades of yellow, it's crazy to mark your queens yellow! I purchased a new white marking pen for this year and will mark them white. I refuse to conform to this madness!!!

Winning the egg battle!

It appears that we are winning the battle with our egg eating chicken!!! Each nesting box has a fake marble egg in it. Apparently our egg eater is not fond of pecking an egg that causes her to hurt her beak! Each nesting box had the same scene, one fake egg and many laid eggs all around it! We are finally back in business! We have eggs! I love easy solutions that don't involve getting rid of an animal or in this case a chicken!

Spring is for babies!

Peachy had a very long day today and she's a bit tired. She began pulling fur a couple of days ago so we knew it was soon. We moved her into a bigger cage, complete with a nesting box, her bed and litter box. We offered her some straw and other nesting materials and she made a beautiful nest.

I came home from work today and she gave birth to 6 little beauties! It looks like 4 BEW's and 2 broken Chocolates! She seems at ease and relaxed.

Bees and Babies!

Yesterday Tim picked up our bees, something he is not always too fond of! By the time I got home, it was cold and getting dark so tomorrow was another day.

We got the hives ready and prepared to hive them. A little spray of sugar water kept them calm and happy.

I pried the tops off to get to the queens.

Thankfully both queens were fine and healthy in the queen cages.

Once we were done, our granddaughter Scarlett, our son Timmy and her mom Sarah came to visit. This was Scarlett's first time now that she is older, where she can understand the animals. She quickly learned that she can feed them banana chips and she had a blast doing it!

One of our Alpacas, Norman actually let her pet him! He never lets anyone pet him!

He was so gentle with her, especially when she forgot to let go of the banana chip!

She even fed Maddie, one of our angora goats! Look how Norman is snuggling Scarlett! He was quite taken with her.

She was amazed by our chickens and Autumn too! We had some time connecting with nature. She got to feel the ground, a stick, a rock, a hickory shell. a white pine bow and a pinecone too! This kid may just be a nature girl after all!

And at the end of the day, the bees are inside, locked down and we are hoping no visits from the bear this year! We are planning to install an electric bear fence in a few weeks. Keeping our fingers crossed!!!

Defeating an egg eater!

Oh the challenges of farming! It seems we have an egg eater! The chickens went off laying eggs longer than we thought. Then the evidence was there! Bits and pieces of consumed eggs, even catching the egg eater in action! She's quick though, when she knows she's caught she runs out the other side quickly blending into the flock. I do know she is one of the Speckled Sussex so I am watching them!

So while doing a bit of research, one of the ideas is to put fake eggs in the nests. This will make the egg eater peck at them, it will make her beak sore with the pecking and not getting results she will begin to equate pain with eating the eggs. I then remembered I had these marble eggs in a cabinet.

I added them to each nest box and lets see what happens! Another idea is filling a blown out egg with mustard. Apparently chickens hate the taste of mustard, who knew?!