A great day for the chickens

Earlier this morning my mom saw our neighbour who said that he had been scarifying his lawn.

He gave us the weed and the moss from the lawn and we gave it to the chickens in a big pile. They loved scratching away at it.

Plenty of pictures below.

This is also a picture of the chickens taking a dirt bath:

Another delicious recipe - Mayonnaise

Ok so now you have your perfect boiled egg, why not give making your own mayo a go!

Home Made Luxurious Mayonnaise

Serves 4-6
Takes 10 minutes
Ingredients:

• 2 medium egg yolks from Faye’chickens/any other chicken!!
• 1tsp Dijon mustard
• 200ml vegetable oil (can use olive oil but has a stronger flavour and is more expensive!)
• 1 tsp of lemon juice or white wine vinegar

Method :

1. Place a folded cloth underneath a medium bowl to stop it sliding while you whisk. Add egg yolks, mustard and a little seasoning, and whisk well until smooth.

2. Add the oil in a slow, steady trickle, whisking with you other hand, until about two-thirds of the oil is incorporated. (Important to add slowly or it will split and not emulsify properly!)

*TIP* - If you have a food processor put eggs and mustard in and leave motor running while you gradually add oil through the open funnel at the top. This will save your arm aching!!

3. Whisk in lemon juice or white wine vinegar,
then whisk remaining oil in a steady stream. If it is too thick whisk in 1-2 teaspoons of warm water to give a consistency that you like.

Yummy!

So simple and perfect for chips. Leave comments to let me know what you think and how you have got on.

How to make the perfect boiled egg by my cousin Chef Amanda

Well I spoke to my cousin Amanda who is a brilliant chef about my chicken blog and she has offered me a couple of simple recipes out there that can be done using eggs. They sound delicious. Try and give them a go.

First of all something that I always struggle with is:

The Perfect Boiled Egg

Serves 1:

Ingredients:

1 fresh egg from Faye’s Chickens/or any other chicken!!

Method:

1.Place the egg carefully into a small saucepan and just cover with cold water. Place on the heat and bring to the boil. Once the water is boiling turn down to simmer and start your timer:
3 minutes for soft boiled OR
4 minutes for harder yolk

2.Meanwhile put some bread in the toaster, get your plate and eggcup ready.

3.When the egg is ready remove it from the water with a slotted spoon and put in your egg cup. Remove the top of the shell and serve immediately with hot buttered toast cut into soldiers.

Very tasty and so simple! Enjoy

Life - guard to help our chickens

Recently the ex battery chickens have had trouble laying eggs and out of 6 chickens we have been lucky to get 3 eggs.



So when I went home one weekend my mom decided to go to a shop called AK feeds in Shenstone.

She asked one of the experts who works there what she could do, and was told that it could be that they need more vitamins.

They suggested a supplement called:

Life-Guard
The slogan on the bottle says: 'Happy Hens Lay better eggs more often'

This is a complementary feed for chickens, also suitable for ducks, geese and all domestic fowl, and it is a natural supplement.

It is really easy to give to the chickens. All you have to do is add to the drinking water:

Maintenance 25ml to 10 litres of water
Poor condition 25ml to 2 litres.

Now we just have to wait and see if it has made any difference to the chickens.

Free range is the way forward

I was shocked when I heard in the news about inspectors finding out that a number of eggs in Derbyshire, England are being sold as free range when they are in fact from battery hens.

Before my family and I had chickens I noticed the different prices of the eggs when I was shopping. Being a university student who is living on a tight food budget I never really thought of the different conditions the eggs were being laid.



Since we have had chickens when at home I have been eating the eggs they have laid. And then when I am back at university I always make sure I pay that bit of extra money to get the free range eggs.

It usually ends up in a discussion with some people. For example on Pancake Day, myself and two of my housemates Gary and Andy decided that we would make pancakes together and all put money towards the ingredients.

When we got to the eggs I found cheap one that were about 90p but then soon realised that they weren’t free range, so I found the next ones up which were free range and cost about £1.46. Even though they both questioned me because they would also have to pay the extra I knew if I didn't get the free range it would be on my conscience and I would have to deal with it.

Even though the chickens scare me I could not face knowing they are being caged up whilst laying eggs, whilst I could pay that extra 50p and make a bit of a difference.

Environment Committee

Today MEPS will be attending the Environment Committee in Europe.

This email was sent to people who are part of the Battery Hen Welfare Trust

Dear Supporters,

On 16th March UK MEPs sitting on the Environment Committee in Europe will be voting on an amendment to a proposal which if passed would help to improve the lives of millions of hens across Europe.

The amendment is calling for processed foods containing eggs to be labelled with production method to provide consumers with the information needed to make informed choices based on the welfare of laying hens when buying such products.

If you want to email your local MEP to say that you support the amendment, please leave a comment and I will send your further information on how to do so.

The name of the fear

I thought that it was about time to research into what my fear is actually called.

And it is called:

Ornithophobia

On Wikipedia it says:

Ornithophobia is a type of specific phobia, an abnormal, irrational fear of birds.

Ornithophobia can cause the following symptoms: breathlessness, dizziness, excessive sweating, nausea, dry mouth, feeling sick, shaking, heart palpitations, inability to speak or think clearly, a fear of dying, becoming mad or losing control or a full blown anxiety attack.

Irrational??? what do they know?!

Below is a video of the chickens that are apparently my irrational fear.

Free chickens (in Belgium)

My house mate Andy told me a while ago about a story that was on the BBC news website about chickens:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8539877.stm

I know it was while ago, but I kept meaning to write about it but first of all wanted to tell you about my chickens.

So to the story....

In Belgium they are offering two chickens to families to help "publicise alternative methods of waste management."

(As chickens can eat many things such as potatoes and pasta - more of this to come on a later blog)

However they are told if they take part they cannot eat the chickens for two years.
"Local officials are stressing that applicants could gain a supply of free, fresh eggs."

Even though I don't like chickens I think that this is a good idea. And I just wanted to spread the Belgium chicken joy! SO DON'T EAT YOUR CHICKENS....YOU WILL NEED THEM ON THAT COLD DAY- when you fancy a boiled egg and soldiers!

Where the fear began...

I have been trying to think of the reason why my fear of chickens and other birds started. And I think I have finally found the answer.

It happened about 14 years ago when I went away with my family to Florida. One day we went for a walk around by the sea, and sitting on a bunch of rocks were a few men fishing. We went over and said hello.

As soon as we started chatting to the fishermen one of them caught a fish and pulled it out of the water. All of a sudden the pelicans that were sitting on the rocks started going crazy and jumping around.

One of the pelicans who was stood next to me saw the fish and jumped up, and by accident bit me on the bum.

Because of the pain that I felt I jumped into the air and nearly fell off the rocks into the sea. Luckily my dad caught me and pulled me away from them.



But to be fair I think you can see why. After all who would want to be bit on the bum by those mean looking pelicans. They have massive beaks and could have easily have eaten me or pushed me into the sea!

Not as scary as the others....

The ex battery chickens did not scare me at first because they ran away from me, and hid in the cage. But over the month they have become more relaxed and now when you walk into the back garden they always think that you are bringing food out to them, and decided to jump your way.

I can’t stand at the end of my garden now!

Sabrina



This time I had the chance to name one of the chickens.

Sabrina looked terrible when she came to live in our back garden. You could clearly see the feathers were not on her neck due to being tied up, and she always hid away in the eglu.

Now Sabrina’s feathers have grown back and she has more confidence. She can now approach the other chickens without being attacked by them.

Moo Moo



This chicken was named by my 3-year-old nephew, even though the name keeps changing.

Out of the ex battery chickens Moo Moo was the brave one, and was not afraid to approach the other chickens. Moo Moo had bold patches over her back, but still wanted to fight with the other chickens for the pecking order (a ‘top bird’ to which the rest will defer).

Even though she did not succeed she still was very confident and was not afraid.

Ronnie



Named after Ronnie from Eastenders by my 6-year-old niece. Ronnie was the quiet one,that always stood up for Moo Moo but still was quite subdued.

This ex battery chicken was not as bad as the other two but still had little marks on her back that you could tell she had not been kept in nice conditions.

All of the ex battery chickens had to have special attention paid to them, and were fed special food that would help them get healthy again. One of the tips told to my mom was to mix the chicken food with a pro biotic yogurt. It seemed to work as now all the chickens are all healthy again.

Not long now until we won’t be able to tell the difference between all six.

Here come the ex battery chickens

After my mom thought the chickens were the best thing since.....well since eggs on toast, she decided that the next chickens she would like to take care of would be ex battery chickens.

The ex battery chickens were kept in a small cage on a battery farm. They spent all day in a small cage; tied up by the neck.



When the chickens were released they couldn't walk as they have been cooped up in the cage for so long, some even had bald patches as they had been kept in an unhealthy environment.



The Battery Hen Welfare Trust work together with the battery farms, and help to rescue the chickens and to offer them the free range home they deserve. People who want to take care of the chickens will not be charged by the trust but many of the people make a donation.

Once the chickens were rescued they are taken to a barn where they are released to run around freely. People then have the chance to collect chickens and take them home. This is exactly what my mom did after a rescue took place at Coventry.

To see so many chickens running freely in a barn, many struggling to even keep on their feet, was heart breaking even as someone who is petrified of them.



When the chickens were brought home they were placed into an eglu similar to the one that the other chickens live in.



However the chickens had to be kept separately from the first chickens that we took care of because they would begin to fight.

So then we had three more!