Squawks from the Chicken Coop

This is Lemon and Pepper checking in with the Blog. Things are much the same as ever in the Garden.

There is grass to be scratched, dirt to be rolled in and sparrows to chase.

There are sudden sounds that are a bit scary and we have to make lots of noise about. That's especially important early in the morning when no-one is around in case they don't notice the scary things.

There are eggs to be laid. Not as many as we used to have to do - getting old has it's advantages. The downside is that getting the shells right seems to be a bit tricky at the moment, sometimes they're a bit thin and then we accidentally stand on them so they break. That's not so good.

And of course the best bit is still when people come out of the door with something tasty for us to eat. Corn is our favourite, but stale bread or apple cores are pretty good too.

Cluck Cluck.

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7 things I've learnt from keeping chickens...

Things have been very quiet in the chicken coop this month, so instead of our normal end of month update I give you:

Seven Things I've Learnt from Keeping Hens

1. They can be incredibly noisy. Nope, not just the boys. Our girls make a racket whenever they are about to lay an egg, they have laid an egg, they see a passing shadow (pigeon!), another hen has the best spot in the nest box or they're just feeling grumpy. So, yeah, noisy.

2. Eggs come in all shapes and sizes. I always knew that the supermarket eggs weren't the only sort but I'd never have guessed that we'd see such a range from our little flock.

3. Chickens are inquisitive birds. They'll stick their beaks in anywhere they can, particularly if there's a chance of something tasty. Pepper in particular has learnt to shadow us as we garden in the hope we'll turn up some yummy bugs.

4. They have a large range of clucks that's relatively unique to each hen. Frog has a little cluck, Pepper is friendly and talkative when happy and goes for the clu-clu-clu-clu-clawrk-clu-clu-clu-clawrk when annoyed. Lemon just generally squawks, sometimes with a bit of a warble. Without exception though they all go for an unending rhythmic cluck if you disturb them when broody (one of the giveaway signs that they are broody and not just laying).

Frog demonstrating the "broody hen cluck" for you...

5. Did I mention how noisy they can be?

6. We quickly learnt how to catch and keep a hold of a hen. The trick is to corner them, hope they squat (something laying hens will often do as a matter of course), and don't be scared when they flap! 

7. Hens are sociable animals. They love to sit on the back doorstep and watch us. They will come running when we get home from work and happily say hello when we're out in the garden. Most of this is because we're well established as the bringers of food... But I'd like to think there's more to it than that. Well, I can hope (yes I know I'm deluded).

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March in the Chicken Coop

This month in the chicken coop...

... they've not been in the coop. Well they have, but after a winter of using it as a shelter from all the wind and rain they've rediscovered their love of the garden. This has it's ups and downs. It's so much fun seeing them explore again, and they're following us round more. Last weekend Joe was trying to plant out a day-lily we'd bought out of season last year (hooray for the "dead plants section"!), but could hardly dig for Pepper checking the loose soil for worms. We almost had a headless hen! On the downside they now start squawking at sun up for the gate to be opened and we're not impressed.

... they've been laying. We're finally up to speed with three regular layers. Fizzy, as always, has decided that eggs are not for her, but we're getting 15-20 eggs a week from the other three which is more than enough to keep us happy!

... getting muddy. At the start of the month Fizzy started to get particularly muddy. Her feathers were all clumped together and we weren't sure she was going to get on top of it again so we stepped in and gave her a bath....

This was after her bath.... still brown but not so muddy.

She wasn't impressed by the peace offering....

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February in the Chicken Coop

This month in the chicken coop...

... its been cold, wet and windy. On many days the girls have got up, had something to eat, and gone back to bed and I can't blame them! We can't let them out into the rest of the garden unsupervised at the moment leaving them with not much to do except snooze the day away. I think they're probably hoping for spring as much as the rest of us!

... they've been supervising us sorting the fence. (From a safe distance of course!)

Lemon, Pepper and Fizzy with Joe digging in the background.

Needing to stay out of the way while the gap in the fence is unattended.

... laying, ish. Frog and Pepper are now producing five or six eggs a week between them. Compared to February last year this is really low (and last year there was snow!). I think this might be the difference between hens approaching their first spring - which was always going to be their best laying season - and those enduring their second winter.

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January in the Chicken Coop

This month our hens have been....

... laying eggs! Well, Pepper has anyway. As with last year she's been the first to end the winter break and is laying most days. We were very impressed that she started again within a week of last winters date, and that gives us great hope that Frog and Lemon might not be too far behind. 

... continuing the festive season. We've been filling the nest box with shredded wrapping paper (avoiding the shiniest stuff) which has been making things bright and colourful.

... enjoying weekends in the garden. While the weeks are spent wallowing in the muddy run, at the weekend we let them out into the garden still where they have a good rummage in the compost heap and scratch through the lawn. We took a sunny Sunday afternoon to get some jobs done in the garden recently and I was reminded of how pleasant pottering can be with the hens wandering around to keep you company.

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Kitchen Gadget 4. Hand Blender

Happy New Year! I hope you all had fun, relaxing Christmases and ate lots of good food. I know we certainly did. We also put our heads together over the break to come up with a few challenges and series for the blog this year, but we'll be sharing those with you as we go along. For now we're diving straight into 2014 with the next in our series of Kitchen Gadgets.

This month we're taking a little look at our hand blender. This is a gadget that has survived since Joe's days as a student. You'd think that by now we'd have bigger better gadgets for any jobs this might do, but the truth is that it's small, nimble and easy to wash up and that means that it still gets regular use.

It's useful for blending soups without taking them out of the pan they're cooking in and blitzing stale bread into breadcrumbs, but mostly we use it for whizzing up a batter. Be it for pancakes or Yorkshire Puddings this little stick is just really handy!

Toad "in" the Hole
Serves 2 hungry people.

A twist on a classic, we prefer our yorkshires crispy so tend to cook the Toad and the Hole separately. We make no claims that we're the expert on this, but the Yorkshire Puddings seem to come out consistently well risen so we thought we'd share our recipe, which has been cobbled together over the years from a few different places.

For the Yorkshires:
110g plain flour
200ml milk
2 eggs
Pinch salt
Mixed herbs

Plus:
Sausages for two.
Vegetables of your choice. We roasted some potatoes, sweet potato and carrots to go with our Toad.

Preheat the oven to 220C.

1. Measure out all the ingredients for the Yorkshire Puddings into a pot and blend until well combined. Leave to sit for a few minutes.

2. Put a few ml of cooking oil into each dimple of a deep muffin tin, this should be just enough to cover the bottom of each dimple.

3. Put the sausages and the oiled tray into the preheated oven.

4. After 5 mins the oil should be hot enough for the batter. The trick to Yorkshire Puddings is to get the batter into hot fat and the whole lot back into the oven quickly.

Pull the tray out of the oven and sit it on the open oven door to try and retain the heat. Pour the batter into each dimple until it is 2/3 full. This mixture makes 9-10 puddings in our tin. You'll know this is going well when you hear a hot sizzling sound as the batter hits the oil.

5. Quickly return the tray to the hot oven. Bake the sausages and the Yorkshire Puddings for about 20 mins or until the Yorkshires are well risen and golden brown. Try to resist the urge to open the oven to check on them for at least the first 10 mins!

6. Once cooked serve with gravy and your vegetable of choice. Enjoy.

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November in the Chicken Coop

This month our hens have been....

... not laying. That's right, not one single egg all month. It started with the moulting which should cause them to have a short break (making feathers and eggs is hard work on a hen) but we're coming to the conclusion that the shorter days and the cold weather might be influencing things as well. They seem otherwise healthy and we didn't get any eggs this time last year either.

Some breeds of chicken will lay pretty much all year round, but unfortunately ours don't fall into that category and are quite likely to take a break over the winter months. Last week we bought supermarket eggs for the first time in ten months, it was a sad day.

Red Lions lining up on our egg rack once more...

... moulting. Frogs turn now to shed her feathers. She's decided to go for the "all-in-one" method of moulting and consequently looked freshly plucked for a couple of weeks. She timed this really badly as the cold weather really kicked in and she spent a lot of time hiding in the coop shivering. We felt very sorry for her, but not sorry enough to do this. They've all now finished and are ready for winter with very soft, thick, coats of feathers.

... sleeping. The clocks have gone back and that means we see a lot less of our flock. By the time we get home from work its pitch black, they've already tucked themselves up for the night and happily snooze through until the rather late sunrise the following day (today it was 7.49am). On a plus note they're not waking us up at 5.30am!

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Photo Friday - A Round Dozen

To celebrate the arrival of the hens on The Urban Cottage - and because we've now been chicken keepers for one whole year - we're declaring this to be Chicken and Egg week.

12 of the girls' finest.

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Soft-Boiled Bantam Eggs

To celebrate the arrival of the hens on The Urban Cottage - and because we've now been chicken keepers for one whole year - we're declaring this to be Chicken and Egg week.

Having two full sized hens and two bantams means our eggs come in a variety of sizes, and that means making a few adjustments to our recipes. One full sized egg is not quite equivalent to two bantam eggs - its more like two large to three small, which isn't a very convenient ratio. We tend to make it up as we go along, throwing in extra small eggs for good measure when we want the extra richness, and where the weight of the egg really matters - we use the large ones.

When it comes to breakfasts though we eat both in equal measure. When you poach, fry or coddle an egg you can keep an eye on it and stop cooking each egg when it is done, regardless of size. One place where timing is crucial though, is in a classic soft-boiled egg. It's tricky because you can't tell until you crack it open and dip your toast in as to whether it is wildly under, completely solid, or soft-boiled to gooey perfection. And I do like a good gooey egg for breakfast!

Strangely that there seemed to be very few internet references for soft-boiling these little eggs, so it took a little bit of research. A little help from the [egg circumference: cooking time] ratio in sous-vide water bath techniques however and we think we've got it cracked: room temperature Lemon and Pepper eggs soft-boil rather nicely in 3 mins 10 secs, and that Fizzy and Frog eggs cook in 2 mins 40 seconds. Yum.

The last little problem in the hunt for a perfect breakfast was what to use for bantam egg cups. Our normal egg cups are definitely too large. Or are they? Turned on their heads suddenly everything fits!

Breakfast is served.

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