We have progressed to the next stage of the front garden bed rebuild. To recap, I dug out a few yards of dirt to remove the plants that had taken over, we purchased several yards of bedding soil and my husband amended it with chicken compost and refilled the bed. He set up the drip system and planted three kinds of Liriope, a flowering grass.
Photo description: front flower bed with Liriope Muscari planted in rows: giant and aztec in the back and Big Blue in the front, one Turks Cap planted behind the Liriope
The next step is to put down mulch. The Turks Cap is the only native. Liriope does well in this climate, though, and is low maintenance, which is what we need.
This is lotus flower fiber, from the long stalks of the water plant.
Photo description: bundle of lotus stalk fiber (above) and a small twined rope (below)
I should have hackled this fiber to separate the strands and remove the shortest sections, but I picked it as a travel project, and figured out I should have run it over my steel combs about 30 minutes down the road. I’ll be finding tiny bits of lotus fiber in the car for the foreseeable future (along with bits of flax and yarn ends).
The fiber is enjoyable to twine. There are some very long fibers in the bundle, around 5-6 feet long. Twining goes better with a little sponge and a spray bottle of water so I can keep my finger tips moist as I twist.
Twining has become my favorite travel project because I can watch the scenery and not have to keep my eyes on my hands.
I found a very small egg in the coop. It only weighed 22g.
Photo description: 22g egg held in my hand with the probable culprit, a Black Star hen, in the background
Sometimes when this happens there is no yolk, but I poked holes in both ends and blew out the contents, and there was a yolk and a white, just in smaller amounts.
Photo description: small glass bowl containing a small yolk and small white next to a small egg
I suspect it was just a reproductive track hiccup, most likely from Wing Ding the hen, since she is my only active layer, and it doesn’t have the translucent white deposit that makes Faverolle eggs look pink.
Last year I had a reader reach out with a conundrum: she had three nest boxes with a golf ball each, and somehow the hens moved all three balls into one nest box. I suggested that they nudged or rolled them and to look for a ledge.
Fast forward to this week, and I found my two golf balls in my two nest boxes both in the same box.
Photo description: two golf balls in a nest of straw
There is no rolling or nudging possible between my nest metal boxes.
Photo description: the metal nest boxes in question
So I did a little more digging with the search phrase “can chickens move eggs”. We are not the only people to experience this phenomenon, but it is not common. One person even captured a picture of a hen carrying two eggs! The hen tucked the eggs between her legs and body and stabilized them with her wings. That particular internet chicken forged while carrying eggs, so moving eggs from one nest box to another is certainly possible. Or golf balls.
Of course these two nest boxes are not viewable with my web cam, so I don’t have photographic evidence of my hen moving her treasures.
In March 2017 I made a pull apart cake for my eldest. She picked out a cat picture (not any of our cats), and I used an airbrush with food dye to paint white frosting on cupcakes. The ears are massive mounds of fondant.
Photo description: pull apart cake airbrushed to look like a white and orange cat
Video description: top down view of a pull apart cake being pulled apart
Critters and Craft 