Here we go!

 Here we go! The Connecticut Sheep and Wool Festival goes virtual today! We go live at noon with our wares! Our spot is from noon to 12:30. We are featuring just some of the items that we have available. We are so happy to be featured and that the CSWF for including us in this virtual version until next year when we can get back to an in person festival. Click on the link below to watch and support all the vendors.

 Official 2021 Virtual CT Sheep Wool Fiber Festival | Facebook

One day to go, Virtual CT Sheep and Wool Festival

 Just one day to go until the Virtual Ct Sheep and Wool Festival!

We will be offering some of the Felting Kits for the objects shown. Our time slot is 12:00 to 12:30 p.m. Please take the time to watch all the vendors tomorrow! With all the hopes in the world, we will get past this virus and have an in person Festival next year! Click on the link before to support all the vendors of CSWF!

 Offical 2021 Virtual CT Wool and Fiber Festival - Search Results | Facebook

Countdown is 3 days away!

 Our virtual sale through the Connecticut Sheep and Wool Festival is just 3 days away! We will be offering Drop Spindle Kits complete with a Drop Spindle,  2 1/2 ounces of beautiful clean alpaca roving from one our farms alpacas! It comes in 3 colors, Dark Brown, Fawn and White. Enclosed are also step by step instructions on how to spin. This complete kit is just $25.00.

Four days to countdown...

 Four days to go! We will be offering both needle felting dyed batts (left) as well as Needle Felting Kits that include 8 hand dyed batts, a Felting Board and Felting Needles as well as a complete instruction sheet. These will be featured during our virtual show this Saturday!

Countdown to The Ct Sheep and Wool!

 Just 5 days away from the Ct Sheep and Wool Festival, Virtual version! Coon Hollow Farm will be participating in this unprecedented on line event. Our time slot is from 12-12:30 p.m. and each day we will be featuring an item we will have available leading up to the Virtual on-line sale! So stay tuned to learn more (as we do). 

Pictured are our Eco Friendly Dryer Balls in an eco friendly packaging! There are 4 large balls in natural assorted colors from our very own alpacas here on the farm! They are just $20 a package. They soften the clothes and speed up drying time too!

The egg and the bee?!

Did you know chickens aren't the only ones to lay eggs? Honeybee queens do too! After a week since our bees arrived, with our queen successfully being released out of her queen cage, it looks like she went right to work! If you look closely, each cell has one lone egg in it that looks like a small grain of rice, but in fact that is a honeybee egg! These eggs in particular are worker bee eggs. If you look at the size of the worker honeybee in this picture, you can get a size comparison of just how small they are. I love the black frames because it makes it so much easier to see with the naked eye. 

This egg will go through a process to grow into larvae inn about 4 days, on the 5th day the workers will cover it with a soft waxy mixture after they have placed food in the cell for the growing pupae to eat, which will emerge as an actual honeybee in about 21 days.

This year I am also trying some new feeders that some of my fellow beekeepers are raving about. It takes the place of an actual frame but has the food right there for the bees.

It has a "ladder" of sorts for them to go down while drinking the sugar water. This prevents drowning and seems to narrow as it goes down. Beekeeping has evolved in my many years. They seemed to be interested in it. We will take another look in a few days to see how it goes.

 

Our new flock additions...

What means Spring more than new baby chicks? It's such a time of renewal and preparing for babies on the farm! This year our local feed store offered some new rare breeds and I jumped at the chance to add some to our mixed flock of chickens. This chick is an Ameraucana and will lay a light blue egg. They grow up to have these adorable cheek tufts and are the only chickens who have true tails. 

This chick I was especially excited to add, and thats' the Barnevelder! These chickens grow up to be just stunning birds, probably I'm partial to the color brown! This is a Dutch breed of chicken and are extremely laid back in personality. Their eggs are a chocolate brown color too. 

Then we have the Noir Maran chick, not to be confused with the Black Copper Maran. These are feather legged birds as well. If you look close, this one is popping little feathers on the legs. They too produce a chocolate brown egg that is stunning. 

Last but not leastly, we have the Rhode Island Blue! They grow up to be an almost blue colored chicken with a splash of brown on their heads. Also a brown egg layer but a stunning looking bird just the same. 

That is our 2021 new chick selection. I'm looking forward to seeing them grow and watch them as they peck about without a care in the world!

Stay tuned, this year we will be making some changes and adding an exciting addition to the farm, but you'll have to watch and see what it may be!

 

Yo-Yo crazy!

I think in life, we should explore and learn everything that we can. Look at something that intrigues us and make a goal to learn it. For me, it was this. I have a yo-yo wall hanging and a yo-yo quilt at the end of my bed that my grandmother gave me. No one in my family knows where it came from. It's made from old vintage fabric, is queen bed sized and just beautiful! I have stared at these two things for years, curious at the technique, how did they do it and vowing someday I will figure it out!

My friend Naomi featured it on our Fiber Arts monthly Zoom meeting back in February and I was hooked! All I needed was the items in the picture above and I could get started! The yellow disc is a two part piece that you place the fabric in and stitch around, then pulling the thick thread to make the center pucker. In all I needed 120 to make my project!

Here is the link to get the set: Amazon.com: Bundle of Five (5) Quick Yo-Yo Makers: Extra Small (makes 3/4" yo-yos), Small (makes 1.25" yo-yos), Large (makes 1.75" yo-yos), Extra Large (makes 2-3/8" yo-yos), and Jumbo (makes 3.5" yo-yos): Arts, Crafts & Sewing

You needed to cut the fabric and then bend the fabric inward and stitch around it The little grooves act as a spacer to get an even stitch. A fast and easy process. Many years ago women would cut cardboard or anything they could find for a template. These discs come in a set of different sizes.

I made mine of many shades of blue fabric I had left over from a former project, not knowing what or why I was making it, until I got a bridal invitation for a young woman who loves blue!

Once I got my 120 made, it was time to join the rows together! 

Stitch by stich, row by row...

until they were all join!

 My finished project! All hand stitched and ready for the bride to be! Now to get on to my next project!

It's that bee time of year

It's that time of year again! Time to get the bees installed and get ready for a new season. I was thinking today how many years this is for me. I think it's my 11th year but I have to look back to be sure. You can sure learn a lot from these girls, that's for sure. I've been giving it some thought, whether or not this may be my last year. I'm getting on in my years and the boxes are getting harder to lift. I'd love to get a partner which was wonderful when I had one. However, when I was up there working with the girls, feeling their energy, it's just part of me.

  The big black bee is a big beautiful drone, which is a male honeybee. A hive only has a few of these. These boys whole purpose in life is to reproduce. They serve no purpose in taking care of the hive, they don't bring in food and they are fed by the workers. The female workers are literally the ones who pull the total load of work within the hive.

The can of sugar water that they come with was still filled so I'm sure they are hungry. I had frames filled with honey left over from other hives so they have lots of food to start off with.

The queen is big and healthy. The attendants are ready and willing to take care of her every need.

And this is the side eye when you walk by a chicken in your bee suit who has never seen you in one before. She had no idea of what to make of it! She knew it was me but couldn't take her eye off of me! I was laughing because you just had to wonder what was going through her mind.