Meet Betty

[MEB]

The newest member of the Middle Earth Brewery and 'the hippies on the hill' joined the fold today. She's a big and very good black mother Hen. :

Betty

Underneath her is 5 x 5 day old chicks of hers and 3 x 5 day old hen chicks. She took to the new chicks instantly-you can just see one under her wing. Which i was very pleased about. I got her and her chicks for NZ$40. As some of these chicks of hers will be roosters i thought i'd better get some hen chicks too. The roosters of hers will be sizeable in a short time-look at the size of her. These will be for the table as soon as they are big enough. The hens will be layers and provide me with as many egg's as we can eat. Some will go down to our guesthouses for the guests and others used for bartering with friends. She'll be kept in the house overnight, just to settle down and then she'll go in the old pheasant run untill the roosters get despatched then they'll all go in the chicken run. By which time i'll expect laying to commence.

She's a good laying bird so i expect her to produce first, followed by a week or so of double yolkers from the young un's till they get their act together. Which doesn't take too long, unfortunately. I love poached eggs when they've got a double yolk. Soft boiled are great too.

I also managed to get my veg patch sorted out too so i'll post a few piccies of that up as well. It contains: Tomatoes, garlic, fennel, peppers, celery, thai chilli's, serrano chilli's, broccoli, mesclun salad, rocket, thai basil, chives, shallots, white onions, red onions, leeks, sweetcorn, carrots, gherkins, lemon thyme and basil.

 

[EskiBrew]

Nice one MEB. When I hatched some eggs the other year, I ended up with three cockrels and only one hen! - I wanted it the other way around.

We ate the cockrels once they'd matured but I did not enjoy killing them and don't think I'll try again - without a good technique, I felt I was making them suffer more than killing them quickly. I guess if you know what you are doing and can dispatch them fast it would be less stressful all round

We now have two hens - one is a good layer and the other lays only in obscure places so she can brood a batch. I once found her sitting on 18 eggs - none fertile so most had gone bad :sick:

 

[Jonnyv]

A friend of mine dispatches his chickens in the following way:

1. Person A holds the chicken on the ground with neck outstretched
2. Person B takes a spade and pushes it through the neck - not enough to decapitate but enough to break the neck and sever the spinal cord in a quick sharp manner.

It's fast and effective - but does require two people.

 

[Kingfisher]

Your living the life there MEB :thumb: What's the matter the a bit of aspargus in the plot

 

[MEB]

Asparagus takes too long to mature. And it 'affects' me in a way that is not altogether pleasant.

 

[MEB]

I only got two Roosters from the chicks. Which was good. They recently started to '**** a doodle squark' in the mornings and evenings so they are now residing in my belly. :thumb:
We despatched them by holding the chook by the legs, stretching it's neck out on a log/chopping block and swiftly chopped off the heads with a machette. No problem at all. They were then hung for an hour to bleed out. Then they were plucked-this is tedious & boring but care must be taken to avoid tearing the skin-something i'm rather good at . The guts and crowing thingy were all removed. Then they got a very good wash and the last of the pin feathers removed. After which they were marinated for a couple of hours and then threaded onto the skewer. I tied up the legs and off they went. Two hours later wifey and I were treated to a bird each. They were fantastic-the leg meat especially. Juicy, tasty and succulent. Colonel Sanders would tear my arm off for chicken as good as this. :lol:

As i now have far too many layers i am going to have a bit of a bbq in two weeks. :party: Of course-everyone from THBF is invited. The theme being 'spit roast chicken goes well with turbo cider'. My hens are now getting fed a variety of veg's from the garden, kitchen scraps, sweetcorn and layer pellets. This should give them a great flavour and help to put weight on them over the next few weeks. Not to mention the fact that they are getting a very good-if albeit quite short, life.

Veg's are going great, we've eaten quite a lot of the leeks-lovely chopped up, fried a little in butter and added to mash. The brocolli is now being eaten, as are the herbs-the parsley is out of control-but the chooks like it so none is wasted. The 'long sweet yellow' pepper plant is chucking out peppers-which turn red if you don't harvest them early. The salad leaves have now gone to seed and need removing and replacing. The Fennel bulbs have gone to seed and have turned into fennel plants. :x So i'll collect the seeds from the seed heads and dry the rest. The toms are also growing out of control-i'd heard through the grapevine that cutting out the laterals DOESN"T actually produce any more fruit. So i thought i'd leave mine to do their own thing and now have the biggest crop of toms to date. So there will be loads of pasta sauce and tom soup made up and froze. Green tomato chutney for those that don't ripen. There's always a few. The gherkins are going great. I have pickled some but not tried them yet. I'm pickling two more jars worth tonight.

 

[BrewStew]

<----- Is so jealous :twisted:

 

[MEB]

Anyone with a bit of dirt can do this. I used to grow at least as much in my allotment in Wiltshire. I hate those washed out veg you get in supermarkets...

 

[jamesb]

Anyone with a bit of dirt can do this. I used to grow at least as much in my allotment in Wiltshire. I hate those washed out veg you get in supermarkets...

I agree. I *heart* my allotment.

 

[BrewStew]

the nearest alotment to me is driving distance. for me that defeats the object if i have to spend money on petrol to grow something.

hopefully my 10m squared veg plot in the garden will have me off to a good start... i may even hijack the empty flower beds too.

 

[percival]

Sounds like you've got a neat place there MEB. your shopping bill must be quite small .... leaving the savings for ..... the brewery .... a happy coincidence :lol:

 

[Bru4u]

Well done MEB, your well sorted there.
I can't wait for some less rain to make a start on the veg for the year. Your own veg straight out of the ground and into the pot or onto the plate is tough to beat, when the new spuds are ready I'd gladly just have a plate of them with butter and salt and nothing else, well maby a nice pint

 

[BrewStew]

roll on sowing season!

i missed last years due to moving house.. the only thing i could plant was onions which are growing nicely through the winter. so i'm looking forward to getting stuff in the ground and on it's way to my belly!

 

[Buzz]

I used to grow at least as much in my allotment in Wiltshire.

Jeez, and your now in sunny NZ and I'm still on my waterlogged plot in Wiltshire. Been trying to get down there for the last couple of weeks but it's just to wet to do anything at the mo. Had some Gooseberry plants turn up today too, so I'm going to have to heel them in until it dries up a bit. What part of Wiltshire MEB ?

 

[Wez]

I'd love to grow some veggies this year but we have a feeling Monsieur Puppy Dog will dig it all up

Will be getting hop plants in though :thumb: he won't be able to get to that bit :party:

 

[Smod]

the nearest alotment to me is driving distance. for me that defeats the object if i have to spend money on petrol to grow something.

hopefully my 10m squared veg plot in the garden will have me off to a good start... i may even hijack the empty flower beds too.

There's a book about called "Square Foot Gardening" and some links and bits on the RHS ans Soil Society sites. I t advocates using a 12sqft area sectioned-off to grow different veg/fruit. Have a look, it might be up your street. :thumb:

 

[MEB]

I used to grow at least as much in my allotment in Wiltshire.

What part of Wiltshire MEB ?

I lived in Colerne which is kinds near Chippenham. I loved it there, possibly the best place in the UK i have lived. Great, friendly, little village.

 

[MEB]

Sounds like you've got a neat place there MEB. your shopping bill must be quite small .... leaving the savings for ..... the brewery .... a happy coincidence :lol:

We haven't bought veg for 3-4 month's and i haven't bought fish for over two years. We eat veg every day from the garden and we eat fresh fish at least twice a week.

Savings for brewery are only usefull if you have time to do any brewing-which at the moment i don't