bish blog

By chance, Miss found out that the local farm shop had some ‘Point of Lay’ chickens for sale and we picked up three new girls on Saturday. We now have two Marans – our original Speckledy from 2005 and a new Basic Marans, the two Welsummers from 2007 and two new White Sussex.

The picture is taken from my study, and no doubt we’ll get better ones once the new chooks are a tad less nervous. They’re getting one hell of a sorting out from the established crew – the phrase “pecking order” has very real and painful meaning behind it! Eventually they’ll either sort out their differences and get along or we’ll be burying the loser(s). Nature, red in beak and claw…

The naming of chickens is apparently mandatory (!) and a friend has suggested “tikka”, “vindaloo” and “madras”… The resemblance to our original chickens though means we will probably be recycling their names So welcome Spike-let, Scarlet-let-let and Clara-too, otherwise known as “the Sequel Chooks!”

Oh, and we’re still running the egg spreadsheet… Since we started we’ve had 2535 eggs at a total per egg cost including housing, chooks and feed of 54p each! [grin] Call it £3 per half dozen – you’d be mad not to.

It’s becoming a problem… not a big problem, but a problem. The local wild birds are eating the chicken feed faster than the chickens. I don’t honestly mind; after all we have seed feeders all over the back garden and it would seem daft to worry about a handful of layers pellets getting devoured in the front. I wonder, though, when the girls will work out why they have no food. Perhaps I can persuade the Starlings and Blackbirds to lay some eggs in return…

Back in February 2006 I fitted a Chicken House automatic door opener. Three years on the four AA cells have depleted and needed replacing. Three years service isn’t bad, out in all weathers including days like these… even if the supplier said four.

The girls are having a great time in the snow, building snowmen and throwing snowb… oh, hang on, that’s us.

If only the entire blackbrid, crow and rook population wouldn’t consider the chicken run their favourite diner… I guess, though, that having feeders all over the back garden it would be odd to rant about constantly refilling the feeder in the front.

DOCUMENTARY: Hugh’s Chicken Run
On: Channel 4 (4)
Date: Monday 7th January 2008
Time: 21:00 to 22:00 (1 hour long)

An anytime alert is set for 15 minutes before the programme starts
Hugh’s Chicken Run launches the The Big Food Fight, a season of programming which aims to raise awareness and encourage debate about food production, animal welfare and healthy eating. Running over three consecutive nights, Hugh’s Chicken Run presents Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall with his biggest challenge yet, as he goes behind the chicken shed doors to change the way Britain consumes chicken.
(Watch Online, Subtitles, Part 1 of 3)

Scroll down to find the noisy link!
Unless you are using Internet Explorer, in which case you’re already hitting mute!

(ok, I couldn’t take the flippin’ sound effects myself! I’ve muted them…)

Just brought half a dozen eggs in amongst the weekly shop, since our five girls have stopped laying for the winter. The thought occurs to me, how come there are so many boxes of local ‘free range’ eggs available? Since my ladies are not laying, due to the season, the lack of sunlight and the cold, where do all the other ‘free range’ eggs come from?

An open letter from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall:

I need your help…

You may have heard about the conditions involved in intensive factory farming of broiler (meat) chickens. I feel that these conditions are unacceptable – so much so, that I’m launching a national campaign to put pressure on the industry to raise its standards: the Chicken Out! campaign.

Chicken Out! has so far been led by River Cottage locals, especially in and around Axminster, and we’ve had a fantastic response. But now I need your support. I’m asking all of you, as friends of River Cottage, to support this campaign and get it off to a flying start across the nation. Please just click the link below*, or if you’re not convinced, see www.chickenout.tv for more info.

And pass it on to your friends, if we get enough support, we really can make a difference.

Our girls run fairly free – not wholly free range, but pretty close. They feel bettererer, we feel bettererer. Just up the road are a couple of less bettererer egg factories, and when the wind is in the ‘unfortunate’ direction… phew!