Faverolle hens should lay pink eggs. The egg on the bottom of the picture I consider to be pink. Not white, but ever so slightly tinted brown.
I do have hatchery quality Faverolles, and a wide spread of egg color, but honestly, I like the brown eggs with the dark speckles all over best. The look like they should be wild eggs.
My youngest likes to dance, and we are now in the sparkly costume part of the year gearing up for performance. The group costume this year is awesome: sassy yet covering, stretchy, easy on, one zipper (this is the big one for me, I’ve had to lace corsets on other costumes. No thank you.)
However, the sleeves are super long on her. I found some invisible thread (clear monofilament designed for sewing) and folded the sleeve inside out, and did a straight stitch around the existing cuff seam. I stretched the stitches out, but not enough. Oops. The stitches lasted through dress rehearsal, then popped. So I had to sew them again.
This time, I used a zig zag stitch. Not with my machine, but by hand. The material is a stretchy net, no way was I going at this with my sewing machine especially with a slippery thread. We might need to let down the sleeves at some point, and I wanted to minimize potential damage both with the stitch going in, and eventually coming out. It took a little longer, I had to do the stitches one at a time, but the result is so much stretchier!
I also examined all the inside seams for partial sequins, and clipped them out. My daughter was much happier wearing the outfit without the scratchy bits of plastic poking her.
Since it is winter, and the grass is not growing well in the coop, I decided to give sprouting grain inside a try. I found a couple posts on sprouting grain in mason jars, and since I have some empty jars with rings, and some extra aluminum window screen, I’m trying this method first.
I tried two types of grain: scratch and annual rye (again because that is what I had). I put 3-4 Tablespoons of seed in each jar and covered them with water. I fit a square of window screen to the top of the jar, folded over the edges so they wouldn’t be as pokey, and screwed down the lid. I let the seeds soak overnight, then tipped them over the sink to drain off the water. I rinsed the seeds twice a day and left the jars on their sides in a low tray to drain.
After three days the scratch was sprouted and I fed it to the chickens. They loved it!
After 5 days, the rye had formed a mat of roots with 2-3” blades of grass. The chickens were not so keen on this, but eventually ate it up.
I loaded two hand fishing reels with spun merino wool, then used the third spindle full to make a three ply yarn. I was hoping that the large spools would keep the single ply from tangling around the stand, but alas, no. Seriously the next time I spin I’m going to fill multiple spindles and ply from the spindles.
I was able to ply most of the yarn, but didn’t distribute the fiber exactly evenly between the three strands, so chain plied the leftover bits, which works just fine.
I had enough yarn this time to make two cakes with my wool winder. Yay! Isn’t the color pretty? It is a combination of four shades of red roving.
Found this guy on the front porch. iNaturalist IDs it as a Wheel Bug Arilus cristatus. I can see why it has that name. Very steampunk. Predates steampunk, though, so is steampunk very wheel bug?
Critters and Craft 