bish blog

One of our Welsummers went broody a while ago. For a time we just kept moving her out of the coop into the run, hoping she’d forget the idea, but she insisted on returning and laying, superbly hot and shaped like a deflated football shaped non-flying saucer. In the end one of my parish council colleagues Toby, who is helping with the burial ground, gave me three fertilised – or possibly fertilised – eggs at the start of July, and we pushed them underneath…

This morning, when I went for the eggs, I found a surprise!

The ‘mum’ appears happy with her new responsibility, shielding it from the other girls – and from me! The chick is eating mash and crushed weetabix, and taking from the water drinker. Time will tell if it survives the heat, the other girls and the predators (no foxes (I think the Berkeley hunt took every one just before the ban) but sparrowhawks, magpies etc). There are two other eggs in the coop, now currently abandoned but presumably soon to be sat on again. I wonder, though, if this chook chick will make it back up the ladder into the coop tonight… guess I have a duty to perform as foster-father…

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!