Selfsufficientish.com

My ex-battery girls are wonderful and friendly and they are much easier to handle than the banties (who are quite bad tempered and flightly) and the pure breeds who are still scared of everything. You do get a sense of achievement when you get miserable looking ex-battery hens and nuture them into b...

We bought 20 cockerills for christmas but we'll probably keep a couple for looking after the ladies :wink: I'm lucky as my hubby is a 'shooting' man and has been brought up with the old country ways so he is happy to neck, pluck and draw them all - he's just admitted though he was quite upset when t...

Stonehead wrote:And yes, we eat a lot of cabbage!

you want to watch it they'll be putting a methane tax on you

We were lucky with our first lot, someone we knew had too many chickens and wanted rid of half their stock. They were a bit of a poor looking lot at first because they were mostly rescued ex-battery hens with 4 cross banties thrown in but they're thriving well and up until recently laying well. We w...

:lol: that's true - I must admit once he'd gone I wasn't too bad and I did have a bad day at work but it didn't stop me from eating him! I think it's easy for people to say you shouldn't get attached to the animals you're going to slaughter and you mustn't lose sight of why you got them in the first...

We've done it! - sent our first pig to slaughter. I didn't think I'd ever be capable of doing it but 'sausage' has gone. We took him to the local abattoir 24 hours before slaughter - and what a palava that was trying to get him in the trailer. I'm sure he knew, the two girls were in and out of the t...

...mine are the same too - makes me feel great to see my ladies come squawking and flapping their wings when they see me - love it!!! My only problem at the minute is they've decided to stop laying. I've got 9 ex-battery hens, 4 banties and we added 6 pure breed (2 welsummers, 2 marans and 2 light s...

Our land is just over 7 miles away from our house and as yet we don't live up there. We do keep pigs and chickens but at the moment don't stay overnight very often. We do, however, go up and check, feed, water etc the chickens and pigs at least twice a day and every night do a head count and lock up...

I've got several recipes for rose hips including: A tarte of hips (old english pudding recipe from 1600's) A persian sweet made with hips (with semolina) Sauce Eglantine (for chicken or icecream) Rose hip syrup Rose hip jam Rose hip and crabapple jelly Rose hip wine If you want any of them written u...

Lol I like these

self sufficientish - is it chinese fluffs

Gordon Ramsey - Dr greasy moon

small holder - ah lord smell

One I was told about and used (and was successful) was to plant carrots next to onions. Apparently carrot flies can't stand onions and vice versa. Also pick some elder leaves, bruise them and leave them in a bucket of water for a few days and use this spray on your veggies it keeps bugs away and if ...

the.fee.fairy wrote:And that rosehips split open were a good substitute for itching powder. Did anyone ever itch from it? or was it all psychosomatic?

That takes me back - I remember being told the same. I don't know if I ever tried it or it was tried on me; too long ago now

My hubby decided on ear tags as he thought they would be kinder than a slap mark - still it's all a learning process and I really am truly thankful for the advice you have given me. Ours are GOS so what would you do if you thought you had been given the wrong pig? We were keeping one of the gilts fo...

Many congratulations I wish you the very best for the future - enjoy the honeymoon

I only ever drink tea with a full english or bacon sandwich - the rest of the time I too love my coffee!