Courgette Cake!

Recipes - anything involving eggs!!!

So, I thought I would add a page or two on recipes I like.  Being honest, most of these will probably be my Moms.  I think she should go on the Great British bake off.  She can produce cakes like this massive cupcake and chocolate box cake! 

Let me just clarify, I can not produce anything like this!!  However a nice Courgette cake................yes courgette, is my best effort.

Here is the recipe, good if you have a glut of courgettes and of course you get to use you delicious home reared eggs!!

It's sweet and moreish!

Courgette Cake by Gradma Homer!

Ingredients

1lb trimmed grated courgettes
8 fl oz rapeseed oil or sunflower oil
10oz caster sugar
1.1/2 tablespoons golden syrup
3 eggs
5 oz wholemeal flour (I use wholemeal bread flour)
5oz plain white flour
1 tsp bicarbonate soda
1.1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp grated nutmeg
1.1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
6oz roughly chopped walnuts  (not pecans they too light)

Method

Preheat Oven 350degF gas 4 160 C
Line 2lb loaf tin.  You can use the remainder of mixture to make large cupcakes.

Combine courgettes, oil, sugar & eggs

Sift flours, baking powder, soda, cinnamon, nutmeg together.

Then mix the dry ingredients with the wet courgette mix
Add the walnuts

Spoon mixture into tins/ cases

Bake until skewer comes out clean.  Should be for about 1hour to 1 and a quarter hours. 

If the top begins to brown too much just place some foil gently over to stop browning.
Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 15 mins then remove from tin and cool on wire rack.

Wrap in cling film and put in tin - improves after day 1 if it lasts that long!!

Alternative:  If you dont like nuts or need to replace them, try sultanas or raisins!

Enjoy

Wyandotte chicks at 5 weeks

I promised to update on the chicks progress.
Well here they are!!


A few days old

I am surprised how flighty they are, and they seem quite nervous when I am around.  One chick continues to try and ride on Treacles back, but she is not suffering this too aften now.
  


5 Weeks old



At 5 weeks old they are looking very different to 3 or 4 days old as you would expect.

I have been told that they can time a long time to mature, so I guess I am not going to know anytime soon if they are hens or cockerels.  Having said that it took me 15 weeks to finally accept that Rodney the Rhode Island Red cockerel was actually a cockerel! 

Either way Pinky and Perky are looking quite happy and cute.

I love the markings on their wings.  When I first saw a Wyandotte in a magazine I thought I was looking at a computer generated image.  I honestly did not think it was possible to achieve markings like this. 

I have recently applied to join the Laced Wyandotte Club.

The club caters for silver, blue, gold and buff laced Wyandotte's.  Full size and Bantams.

I'm hoping to gather information on standards, breeders and eventually get along to the club show.

I don't know how these little guy's or gals are going to turn out but if they are anything like this I will be very happy!

I'm considering attending the Royal Welsh Winter Fair in Builth Wells.  They apparently have a poultry show on the second day, and of course there are all those lovely stalls with potential Christmas gifts to look around.

I will update the blog with some info if I manage to get there!

Thanks for reading.

Baby its cold outside and very wet!

"Baby its cold out side"  When I say it in my head I sound like Tom Jones, said out loud, it sounds rather............. weird!



Photo from google

It has been hammering down for the last few days, and even though I have covered the run for the girls with corrugated clear sheets, the ground is waterlogged again.

Any duck would think they were in Disney World, but Treacle, Pudding and Custard seem quite fed up.

I went out this morning to sort out feeders and water, it seemed bitterly cold, so cold that the outside tap water felt lovely and warm!  I think I somehow need to find warm woolly waterproof gloves!

I have written before about how I have avoided boggy runs but it seems this time I have failed.  :-( http://backgardenpoultryhatcher.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/mud-mud-mud-in-chicken-run-run-run.html



Dry weather days!!!

The good news is I still have a bag of sand and one 100 litre bag of wood chippings (not bark) that I can use to top the run up and give them something to scratch around in.  Hopefully this will lift the ground level a little and mean they are not treading in water.

Perhaps the other option is increasing the size of the run to give them more ground.  However I'm not sure I will get that passed by the boss! ;-)



Image from Disney.co.uk



The Cotswold Wood Company sell some great looking runs that I have been looking at on and off for a year or so.  I have also considered the cheaper option of electric poultry netting, but I am still worried about the hens getting out over the top.  I seem to find breeds that have a similar bouncing abilities to tigger.

I have to be careful as I think half my garden could disappear under chicken runs, and my 3 boys would not be happy with less space for football and the climbing frame!

Only time will tell!

Thanks for reading.

The search for land

My search for land has been ongoing for a long time, it seems to have turned into an epic!
It picked up pace after I returned from a Smallholding Course at Humble By Nature  delivered by Liz Shankland.
I haven't quite given up on finding some close to my village, but it is proving very difficult.

I have been talking to farmers, the Community councils City council, local poultry keepers, my allotment association and searched various property websites.

I have discovered that the ideal land is too far away at circa 9 miles, and land prices for agricultural use vary a great deal.  I have seen prices quoted at £7,000 -£10,000 per acre for 4-7 acres, I have also seen asking prices of £15k per acre.
I have not really seen any land to rent.
It's not easy!

If anyone else has tried this rather than moving home to a house with land, I would be interest to know how you approached it and if it worked for you?
If you did find land are you treating it as a hobby or trying to make some sort of living out of it?  How did you go about establishing if there was a demand for your service?

You should be able to leave a comment on this entry or if you are on twitter I am @Homer_Andrew and my facebook page is www.facebook.com/backgardenpoultryhatcher

Thank you for reading.
Next entry will have some photos of the little Wyandotte chicks.  I am also pondering whether to try and train one of my hens!!  

Moulting Hen!

Well, I said I thought Custard was moulting!!
WOW!
The run and the hen house currently look like Custard and Pudding have been having a massive feather pillow fight during the night!!!
I actually think I will have a bald hen shortly.  Anyone know where I can get hen accessories, like a nice woolly chicken coat?

She is looking very rough around the edges.  A little bit like she has been out on the town.  Actually, that's probably not fair as some of the states you see in town after midnight are far worse.  But you probably get the idea.

You can see the run is covered as well.  So I will keep on giving them the tonic I bought to help her get over it as soon as possible.

There was nice surprise this morning, it looks as though Pudding (the Bluebell) may have started laying again.  I'm not sure 1 egg will get us through the week.  So I have bought some local reared eggs from the Cesars Arms Farm Shop in Creigiau.  Its about 2 miles from me and they have a lovely selection of fruit, vegetables, meats and eggs.

I'm a sucker for different colour eggs, so these do the trick!! :-)

Thanks for reading!

Bit of a scare this morning!!

Custard proves the fact that here breed are
great for meat as well as eggs!  She is a monster!

I walked out this morning to a sight that worried me.  Probably what all poultry keepers dread.  No chickens in the run and feathers all over the bottom of the main run.  The feathers were white. 
Putting 2 and 2 together I jumped to the conclusion that Custard must have been attacked or taken by something.  A fox maybe?
My panic did not last long fortunately, as within 3 foot of the house and run, out popped 2 happy hens from their coop, Custard and Pudding!!!
I have no idea why Custard has decided to loose so many feathers, she does have a tendency to pull out her feathers on her underside.  She has never gone broody.  Perhaps her size means she overheats?

After that little episode I want to avoid as much excitement as possible today!

I have been asked recently how the chicks are doing.  Well, here are the latest photos.  They appear to be growing well, but I don't really have anything to compare them to as I have never raised Bantams before.

Wyandotte chicks, Pinky and Perky at 3 weeks and 4 days.

They have feathered quickly, and seem to be enjoying some freedom, running around and away from Treacle every now and then.

I bought dried meal worms the other day.  The hens go mad for them and seem to sit bolt up right like a little like a dog waiting for a treat.  I dropped a few in for the chicks and Treacle was keen to show them how to eat them.  So keen she did not eat any for herself!  The following day in the afternoon I gave them a little more, this time Treacle got stuck in but still ensured the chicks had enough.  What a mummy!

I am struggling a little at the moment with lack of eggs.  Treacle for obvious reasons is not laying, Custard my 4 year old sussex, is to be fair knocking on a little for a hen, and whilst in previous winters she has laid quite well, it appears this autumn and winter is going to be a lean one for her.  Pudding, the bluebell, appears to be in moult or just coming out of a moult.  She is looking a little "rough around the edges" and has lost some feathers around her neck.  I have been checking for mites but can not see any so I am fairly sure it is a moult.  She does lay the odd egg, but it is probably only one every 4-5 days if I'm lucky.

picture from life-guard.co.uk

To help them through the cold and darker months I have purchased Life-Guard, a poultry tonic.  I know there are others available and cheaper but I have used this before and it does seem to be helping Custard and Pudding.  I will not be giving it to Treacle and the chicks, they will have to make do with mealworms and chick crumbs.  I'm sure they will not grumble about that.

Thanks for reading!

Wyandotte chicks get more space

I have been quiet for too long so here is a new entry! ;-)



Picture from Wikipedia

I have been trying to make Mother hen, Treacle and her chicks Pinky and Perky comfortable.

We had another huge amount of rain recently.  My back garden looks a little like a rugby pitch.  Hens feet and like mini potato mashers on boggy ground and you end up with mashed grass very quickly.

With Pinky still thinking that Treacle is a donkey on the beach, she is looking muddier than a very happy Tamworth pig!

So I have spent the last couple of days devising a way of giving them access to my main run.  Blocking off the far end and creating a safe tunnel for them to walk from the broody coop to the run.

Well, proud as punch, I have managed it, here are the photo's.

The chicks are doing well, and seem to enjoy jumping on and off the ramp in and out of the main run.  Treacle is happy scratching around in the sand and wood chip.  So all in all, a success.  Now that does not happen often.

I used the wire shelving from a mini greenhouse that I had stored in the garage.  No damage done to the shelving, managed to squeeze it in the run opening and then taped together with some duck tape.  The tape is really strong and clear, useful for all sorts of thinks like repairing rips in polysheet covering for pollytunnels, or saving a broken pane of glass in a window or greenhouse!  I bought it from B&Q.  Best thing I ever bought like that.

 

I have been trying to find some breeders of Gold lace Bantam Wyandotte's without much success recently.  A few I have spoken to seem to suggest they are popular but take a long time to mature.  I'm not sure why, I will have to research.

Thanks for reading

Me with my old timer Custard - 4 years old