Chicks up date

Chicks are coming along fine we dropped the heat lamp setting down to low yesterday and today they have been outside in the sunshine.
All cleaned out now, back in the garage when the sun goes down.

Hope you are all enjoying the sun.
Take care

The Circle of Life

We picked up 6 new day old Hubbard chicks on Good Friday to replace the ones that we had despatched the Thursday before, they were eleven weeks old and ranged in weight from 5lb 10oz to 8lb 4oz so all good weights two hens and two cockerels.
We roasted the smallest on Saturday 8th April and it was amazing, very tasty, not too strong or watery just right. We had roast then stir fry, chicken and leek pie and there are three boxes of stock in the freezer from the carcass. I was so relieved that we liked the flavour as we have previously raised cockerels and despatched them ourselves to be very disappointed in the meat finding it too strong in taste and not tender as we kept them long enough to make a decent weight. So now the way forward is to stick with Hubbards as table birds.

I'm sure not everyone will agree with what we do but that's a good thing too. We give our animals a good life, they are fed well and don't get any added antibiotics or fillers.

The eldest daughter made a fantastic argument for our way of life on a FB page over the weekend I was very proud of her standing up for her beliefs so hopefully we haven't done too bad a job raising the girls too!

Hope you are all enjoying the good weather we have here.
Take care!

Catch Up

I'm not very good at this writing lark I keep up with reading other people's Blogs but I'm not good at keeping my own up to date I keep thinking but what have I done so here goes.

Girls are on holiday from school and the days are just running away. Pete has started back at work gradually, he teaches power boating at the beginning of the season so two days last week, two days this, four next then five days a week once the schools all start sailing again. So I have had a few days of sorting the animals out at the plot alone and with the good weather I enjoy the peace.

On Wednesday as a family we worked together and got the polythene put on the polytunnel it took some fine tuning on Friday but it's brilliant. I am currently weeding gradually I am thinking of putting weed suppressant down and planting up cucumber, tomatoes and peppers in pots. So far I have planted up the metre square bed with yellow courgette plants, some pea seeds and sweet corn seeds. I've got some cabbage seedlings growing in my trugs so some from there can go in the polytunnel too.

Last weekend we went up country to the newest great nephews christening it was good to see the family. It seems strange being able to go away weekends now, it's normally me that has to stay home to look after the plot but now that the eldest can drive we have some freedom, can't get too used to it though because it won't be long before she goes away to university.

Take care all