More hatching eggs!!!

Croad Langsham chick

As if I would be able to put the incubator away for any length of time.  As it happens it was only 5 days or so and yes I have more hatching eggs.  This time the eggs were kindly donated by Hillside Pigs in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales.  Most unexpected but when I knew they were Vorwerk and Crested Legbars I could not really say no!


I tried to hatch a Legbar recently but the egg was not fertile, so this is a great chance to try again and the Vorwerk's are, I think, stunning looking birds and they lay light cream colored eggs.  Contrast with the blue of the Legbar and the dark eggs from my speckeldy it will make a lovely box of 6 eggs.

Candling egg

This is something I am actually keen on trying to grow and develop.  I know the free range home reared eggs taste much the same whatever the colour, but to be able to offer free range local multi coloured eggs would be a little different and a little unique.  Add to that the offer of quail eggs and duck eggs, I'm starting to build a picture in my head of something I would like to get involved with!

Enough day dreaming, this hatch will only be 4 eggs, 2 Vorwerk and 2 Crested Legbars.  

I have decided not to add to the 4 at the moment as I am still in the process of building my run enclosure down the allotment, plus I think my wife may just kick me out!
When I returned with the eggs I was met with a "I though we were getting rid of the incubator for a while"!
Ooooops!  Could be worse I suppose especially if I have turned up with a baby Lamb or something similar! :-)
The allotment is key really, whilst I made great progress a few weeks ago, other commitments have stopped me from getting down there to finish the job however I still think I will be ok to complete by end of March!

Vorwork - Photo from www.brbpoultry.co.uk

I have fancied Vorwerks for a while, they are lovely looking birds.  There were suposedly developed in 1900 by a German poultry breeder Oskar Vowerk and was standardised in 1913.  There is a bantam version which was developed later in America in 1966.
They seem a little scarce to me, which is a shame as they are lovely looking birds.
Hers hoping I am successful with my hatch.

Thanks for reading.

Let Hatching commence - Croad Langsham and Wyandotte

4 Silver Lace Wyandottes and 2 Croad Langsham

I have been a little quite on the hatching front recently. Probably because the little darlings have caught me off guard. The eggs started hatching 26th Feb, two days before I was expecting any action.
The first egg to hatch was a Wyandotte Silver Lace.
On the 27th Feb, we had three more hatches with another Wyandotte and two Croad Langsham chicks.

As at 28th Feb at 8am the tally was seven. One Faverolle hatched over night and is still in the incubator drying out. The other 6 chicks are now under my brinsea brooder that has capacity for 20.

Wyandotte Silver Lace

I am now waiting on the two Wyandotte eggs that when I candled at day seven I though were not perfect, one owl beard and one salmon faverolle.

Fingers are still crossed especially for the faverolle and the owl beard!

I will be updating the blog with more photos of the chicks soon and some information on integrating new hens with your existing flock.  Watch this space!

Croad Langsham chick

Thanks for reading

Candling Eggs on day 11

Excitement, enthusiasm, anticipation!  Words that I would used to define how I felt when I received my hatching eggs through the post back on the 10th January.

There is something special and addictive about hatching chicks.  Sadly my hatch rates have never really been high.  My first attempt under Treacle my Speckledy hen resulted in just one chick hatching out of 3 eggs.

The second attempt in October 2012 resulted in two chicks hatching out of 6 eggs, again under Treacle!

My third hatch is in my new incubator. A Corti AF25 - the automatic turning model.
I set the eggs back on 9th January and candled as recommended on the 7th day.  Being relatively inexperienced at candling, I was happy to leave the eggs for a further few days before discarding any that are unlikely to hatch.

I candled the eggs again tonight the 20th January at 11 days and took photographs of each egg.  I think this may be a useful guide for anyone candling their own eggs.  Apparently you should not candle to often and for too long! So here goes with the photos!

One of my own chickens eggs - Not Fertile

First incubator egg - not looking too promising - I would say this is NOT fertile.

Second Egg - something defiantly going on in this one - good to leave   in the incubator.

Third egg - Not Fertile! :-(







I cant go on really, sad that only one other egg below seems to have something going on. 
2 out of 6 again!!

Hopefully the other fertile egg!








Lets hope the two do hatch and there are no complications.

Thanks for reading! 

Gold Lace Wyandotte Photos 12 Weeks

They are hardly chicks any more.  12 weeks old and they look like mini versions of the real thing.  Gold Lace Wyandotte Bantam chickens.

I'm hoping that in 4-5 weeks I will find out if they are hens or cockerels.



At the moment one of each would fall nicely into my plans going forwards.








I have 6 Silver lace Wyandotte eggs in my incubator, due to hatch on the 30th January, the day Rhys turns 4!  Could be a nice birthday surprise.....well for me anyway.  He gets a little stressed about animals.

The plan going forward is to breed Wyandottes and I will be selling hatching eggs.

A local school has asked if I will help set them up with a hen house and chickens so that the children can look after them during term time.  They could be the first recipients of the offspring. :-)

I know a lot of schools have been taking on hens, but there is always the little problem of holiday's to sort out.  I guess that's where I would come in and happily take them in for 6 weeks during the summer holidays.  Free eggs - can't complain at that!

Anyway, next on the list after that will be chocolate Wyandottes.
I am very tempted by the Frizzle Pekins, but more recently have been investigating the Silver Appleyard ducks and Buff Orpington Ducks.  They would definitely be an allotment project so lots of work to do before then!

 

I best get my feet under the table with the Wyandottes first of all and the quail that are arriving via the West Midlands on 19th Jan!!  Still work to do on the coop as you can see.  The top level is way to dark.  I have all the materials, just need an hour to knock it together!
I have taken the hardwood panel from the back of the run on the bottom level and replaced with a frame and mesh.
Fingers crossed they will like their new homes.
Next stage is to do the same with the panel at the top level and install mesh on the solid door!  

Hope you enjoyed the photos. Thanks for reading!

Curing Tamworth Ham

My Cured Ham

Well, it was not exactly timed to perfection.  I hoped for a ready cured ham of lovely Tamworth by 26th December 2012.  I did not start it in time unfortunately, so today the 4th January 2013 is the day.

I mentioned recently that I cured some belly pork to make streaky bacon.  This was a huge success and majority of the credit has to go down to the fantastic pork supplied by Liz Shankland at Tudful Tamworths.

I can vouch for the quality of the Tamworth as I have recently cured some supermarket belly pork using the same cure mix bought from www.sausagemaking.org.

Now the cure is great, but the supermarket pork is not nice!  I don't think I have been spoilt, I think I have been shown just what poor taste the fast maturing intensely bred pigs produce. Its no fault of the pigs, it is what we have done due to demand for the cheapest meat ever available.

As you can tell, I am converted to eating quality pork, in fact any quality meat.

I genuinely do not want eat supermarket pork again and would only eat rare breed pork monthly to ensure I am eating a tasty meat and helping in the survival of a rare breed animal.  

So, back to the ham.  I decided to use the bacon cure on a join to try and produce a ham.  It is looking rather good and will be boiled in cider and then baked in the oven in the next day or so. 

I'm sure I will be eating like a king for a while!

Thanks for reading.

Merry Christmas - Hide and Beak

Pudding

Merry Christmas everyone.
I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas.

Hide and beak?  You will see what I mean shortly.

My hens have been getting a real treat with lots of free range time and corn treats in the garden.




So much time that I actually thought I had lost Pudding the other day.
We have a 6 foot fence all around our boundary, so I naturally think this is acceptable to keep chickens in and my neighbours should not have a unexpected visitor.  However Pudding is a particularly good "flyer" and I say flyer in the broadest sense.



Photo from richard-seaman.com

 Chickens tend to take off a little like a harrier jump jet.  Not necessarily with the same grace and effortless way the jet does, but they some how manage to get "airborne" for several seconds, before plummeting to earth like a giant water filled balloon!  The landing is similar to a water balloon hitting the floor as well.  Splat or Sploosh are quite good sound effects!

It was boxing day around 11am and Custard, Pudding, Treacle and the 2 chicks (currently Pinky and Perky) were having a good old explore of the garden.
I peered out of the window just to take the register, and check all were present and correct.
4 out of 5.  Pudding had gone AWOL.

Rather than running out into the garden and checking all sensible places, I decided she must have made her way over the fence, either into my neighbours garden or into our front garden.

I ran upstairs and peered into the neighbours gardens from the back bedroom window.  No sign at all.

I checked the front garden.  No sign.

Then I heard a gun shot!  Not good.

Now thinking rationally, who would want to shoot a domesticated chicken.  You could hardly mistake Pudding for a pheasant!
I decided to don the waterproof trousers, coat and wellies on and venture into the mud and the driving rain!

I spent 10 minutes looking for her.  The last place I had not checked was the nest box................now normally this would be the first place I would check, but recently I installed a piece of wood on a hinge so I could block off the nest box in the evening as both pudding and custard like to sit in the nest box all night and make a right mess of it.

To let them out of the hen house I have to close off the nest box.  Not ideal, but not a major problem.  I thought!
I ignored the nest box, because I thought it was inaccessible.
How wrong I was. 

I can only guess that she managed to open the next box by nudging the door open with her beak and head, similar to a dog when they open doors!
There she was, sitting in the nest box, next to a lovely warm egg!

So for 30 minutes I had been playing hide and seek with a chicken, and she was cuddled up in her nest box the whole time!

Moral of the story, check the most obvious places first, even if they are not necessarily the obvious place at the time!  That makes no sense!!!!!!!!!!!  I know!

Thank you for reading, I hope you had a fantastic Christmas and that you have great fun seeing in the New Year!

Wind, Rain and Frizzle Chickens!



Pekin Frizzle Chicken
Photo from wikipedia

 Well that was a bit of a gale last night in South Wales.  Weathermen are reporting gales up to 76mph!  I'm sure other areas have had it worse, but it woke me up, and I don't wake unless there is a major emergency next door and the fire crews and police are on site with blues and two's screaming.

I was glad to see that the roof on my chicken run was still in one piece, actually I was grateful to see that I had a house left at all.  I was half expecting to see the hens looking like frizzles this morning!  Cute look, but not what a light Sussex should look like!

We have passed the shortest day of the year already, so my mind has turned to spring preparation already.  Back in October I planned my vegetables for the allotment, but having given it some further thought, I will be re-designing and trying to concentrate on some key vegetables.  I may even try celeriac.

At the same time, I'm thinking about chickens.  Now there is a surprise!

I have been thinking about keeping some quail for a while now, the new year may result in the purchase of a rabbit hutch to move this on a little.  Then of course there are the chickens.  

My Wyandotte chicks are likely to be laying in March/April time.  Great news, as the shortage of eggs at the moment is very frustrating. However they could be running with a cockerel and producing fertile eggs for hatching as well.  :-)

My Wyandotte chicks at 8 weeks

There are a few things I need to put in place before I even contemplate purchasing a cockerel.  The main issue being where to keep them.  My neighbours will not be overly happy at a cockerel in the middle of a 1970's housing estate.  So I either need land, not going to happen anytime in the near future if at all so the next option in the allotment.




It needs a lot of clearing before I go down that route, and I also have to consider the impact of the cockerel on any houses in the area.

We will have to see how the next few months go, worst case I guess I could be buying fertile eggs and hatching them again!  Maybe Frizzle's.

Thanks for reading and Merry Christmas!

Wyandotte Chicks Video & Curing update

I thought I would return to the subject I originally set the blog up for.  It's amazing how you can get carried away and write about almost anything.

I have been cleaning the chickens out today.  A mucky job the best of days, but today, although dry it was muddy!  By the time I had finished, I had mud all up my clothes and up my face!  At least I hope it was mud! :-/

I thought I would take the opportunity to let the chicks, Pinky and Perky, have a little free range time around the garden with my other hens, Custard and Pudding.

Last time I did this with Rodney the rooster there was an American Western type standoff between Pudding (the Bluebelle) and Rodney, the Rhode Island Red chick.  Treacle (mummy hen) was trying to act as referee.  To be honest she is better sticking to her day job of laying eggs!

Surprisingly it went rather well.  The chicks are only 8 weeks old, and Custard could not be bothered at all with them.  Pudding came over to them a few times, but left well along.  She had a peck at Treacle, but I think Treacle is used to it!

I took this video of them having a little meander.  You can get a feel for their size quite well.  Its not a long video only 1 minute 20 seconds.

They seem to be doing really well now.  Fingers crossed they are both hens!

I mentioned curing in the post title.  Well, I can't help myself and have to have another go.  So I defrosted some belly pork from my freezer (purchased some time ago from the supermarket).  It's curing now, and I'm sure it will be ok, but nothing compared to the Tamworth meat I have been eating.

I have also started curing a ham/Leg from the Tamworth meat.  I have used exactly the same cure as I used for the bacon.  I think it needs at least 9 days, which would take us to boxing day.  So that could be a nice treat, cooked in cider and then baked in the oven.

I will update my blog when I have made some more progress on these.

Thanks for reading & I hope you enjoy the photos and video.

Breakfast rice for any time of the day

Breakfast rice for any time of the day, well almost a full english!

This is not rocket science really.  It is something that Rachel started making but I have added a few ingredients and tweaked .

We love this dish as an evening meal after a cold day.  It's quite satisfying and a little like comfort food.

Ingredients
Feeds 2-4 depending how hungry you are. And you can always leave in the fridge and eat the following day!

One small onion chopped
1 clove of garlic
4 rashers of good quality dry cured smoked back bacon. Chopped
4 eggs boiled
Tin of baked beans or tin of white beans
One tin of tomatoes
1.5 teaspoons of paprika
6 mushrooms sliced, your choice
One teaspoon of tomato ketchup
320g of whole grain basmati rice

Method

Get the rice on to boil in a large pan.  Then add eggs to a pan of water and cook for 3mins from when water is boiling.

Meanwhile heat a large frying pan with olive oil in, add onion and garlic, and cook for 3-4 mins.
Next add the chopped bacon and mushrooms.
Once bacon is coloured, add tomato ketchup, paprika and tin of tomatoes.
Stir and then add the beans.

Turn the pan down to a simmer and let it cook for 8 mins or so or until the rice is ready.
Once the rice is cooked, drain and put the drained rice still in the strainer in the pan with the lid on top.  Leave for 2 minutes.  It goes a little sticky, so fork through and then add to the pan with all the other ingredients apart from the eggs.

Mix thoroughly and make sure all is piping hot.  Serve into a large bowl, then after the eggs are shelled, cut into quarters and add to the top of the rice dish.

I had not added the eggs when I took this photo.  But you get the idea hopefully.

I you like it spicy, try adding half a chilli when adding the paprika or sprinkle a few drops of Tabasco sauce on top when served and mix in.

Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy!