Update on Agatha

Posted in Chickens | 7 comments

Update on Agatha

Monday: On Monday morning Agatha sprang to her feet when I went into the run. She had eaten all the food in her feeder and was hungry. She also wasn’t sitting on the eggs that I gave her last night. These were not the hatching eggs but eggs laid by our flock. I suppose that she was really rattled by being moved on Sunday night. Also Queen Zeb had been ripping up the cardboard from one side of the broody coop, which must have been disconcerting for poor old Agatha. I spotted Queen Zeb in action when I was pottering about in the run. Gradually...

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Best shepherd’s pie recipe: leftover roast lamb

Posted in Lamb, Leftovers | 8 comments

Best shepherd’s pie recipe: leftover roast lamb

As a small child I remember watching my mum mince cold roast lamb using an old metal mincer that was screwed onto the kitchen table. It was magical to watch big pieces of lamb turning into mince. I assume that she was making shepherd’s pie back then. Danny has similar memories too, standing in his big Irish kitchen, watching the mincer in operation - the air full of the smell of freshly baked soda bread. That’s why we both thought that we had to mince our leftover roast lamb to make a shepherd’s pie. Wrong! Thank goodness I had a furtle...

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Welcome Agatha: The Chicken Lady sends an expert broody hen to replace recalcitrant Hope

Posted in Christmas | 6 comments

Welcome Agatha: The Chicken Lady sends an expert broody hen to replace recalcitrant Hope

I tried isolating Hope in the dark nesting box on her own – willing her to return to her broody state. But she put her tiny claw firmly down and demanded to be released. We left her overnight but the next morning Radio Hope was blasting across the garden with her own individual strain of “Release Me”. If he’d known, Engelbert Humperdinck would be proud of her. So we were left with just two routes to follow. Borrow an incubator or a broody hen. The latter is the best option as the hen, nine times out of ten, will look after her brood....

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Recipe for Fiona’s fabulous watercress soup

Posted in Starters and Soups, Vegetarian | 3 comments

Recipe for Fiona’s fabulous watercress soup

Watercress is packed with vitamins (A, C and K). It is a great source of iron, calcium and is full of beneficial chemicals such as glucosinates. It’s also quite pricey to buy, so when I saw a couple of packs reduced to 20p on the Tesco *CFC, I grabbed them with a chortle. Most summers we grow our own watercress in pots in a shady area of the garden but our plants are still babies at the moment. If you like watercress it’s well worth growing your own. You can see how to grow watercress at home and an update here. The secret to the deeply...

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Hope has got off the nest! What you can do if your chicken suddenly stops being broody.

Posted in Chickens | 5 comments

Hope has got off the nest! What you can do if your chicken suddenly stops being broody.

I went down to the chicken run this afternoon, lifted the lid on the nesting box and found just a neat nest of eggs. The eggs were still warm but where was Hope? I could hear Radio Hope transmitting from behind the Emerald Castle and she stepped out to enjoy the corn that I’d brought for an afternoon treat. Perhaps she was just stretching her legs? But no. She didn’t return to the nest. She was clucking constantly, which is unusual for her. Deciding to hang about in the run for a bit, I busied myself spreading bark chippings in the muddy...

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