We got them from the same private hen rescue home as the last lot but what a difference! These girls are fully feathered, friendly and laying already! In fact we just picked up the hens that came and sat on the box! Last time it took us ages to catch the skittish girls.
Pauline, who does a fantastic job of rescuing and re-homing these birds, had thought she wouldn't have any more birds as the usual farmer had started charging her £2 a hen and insisting she take 2000!!! Obviously as someone who does all this out of her own pocket, this is ridiculous, and an unhappy reminder that people who make money out of animals want only to squeeze every last drop they can from them.
If he sold them in the normal way (to be ground up for pet food) he would make a MAXIMUM of 25p a bird, and if the market was slow he may even have to pay to have them taken away as farm "waste".
He could have charged 50p a bird and still made twice as much profit.
Anyway, the girls are settling in. They will spend a couple of days in the small run talking to Lloyd, Emily, Victoria and Sally through the fence and then we will let then all in together.
For those who are muttering about my laxness, I have come up with a Meat-less Monday for you!
Butternut squash and potato bake.
You will need.
1 butter nut squash.
@ 6 potato's.
1 onion thinly sliced.
1/2 and 1/2 of soya milk and stock, enough to cover the dish.
chives.
salt and pepper.
Peel 1 squash and slice thinly.
Peel and thinly slice @ 6 medium potato's.
Thinly slice the onion.
In a large dish make up layers of squash, potato and onion finishing with a layer of potato.
Mix the stock, soya milk and chives in a jug and pour over the dish. You should have enough to just cover the whole thing.
Place in a moderate oven (@ 180oC) for @ an hour until the potato is soft.If you find the top browning too quickly (Like I did..oops!) pop some foil over the dish and leave n until the last 20 mins or so.
Serve with warm baby spinach and bread :)
First I love that you name your chickens! And second I love their names!! They're not just run of the mill names like joe or bob, they're good names!
ReplyDeleteThe recipe looks soooo good! I love butternut squash and this is a great new recipe!
Theres the golden rule..can you eat someone you names? They become persons :) I choose their names to go withthe media mood of the moment inour house. Last lot was names while the kids went through a heavy tim burton stage so we gleened names from corpes bride and the nightmare before Christmas!
ReplyDeleteThis time I had finished reading the Shipping news and thought the prinicple women where strong enough to be memorable.
Lloyd was nemed when we thought SHE was a HE. The point being we thought we'd ended up with a useless *cock* so we names him after a bank LOL.
Keeps me busy ;)
The recipie is seriously yummy..I left it to you how strong you want stock etc as its a personal choice. But its really simple and I don;t think anyone can mess it up! The squash really sets off the blandness of the potato well. Enjoy :) x